No output after reading text file.........hummm

[quan]

It's totally odd. I am building a database. Here is the code...

#!/usr/bin/perl

require "../library/one.lib"; #pulls perl library
require "../library/html.lib"; #pulls perl library
&mime; #lets browser know its html output
&parse;
$user = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'}; #GET USERS LOGIN


$item = $formdata {'item'}; #pull data from form

#SPLIT ITEMS IN ARRAY OF DESIRED ITEMS TO BE DELETED
@delete = split(/,/, $item); #INDIVIDUAL ITEMS ACCESSIBLE WITH DUMMY VARIABLE
$numitems = @delete; #STORE NUMBER OF ITEMS TO BE DELETED

#RETRIEVE DATA IN ITEMSLOG AND SINGLE OUT ITEM FOR COMPARISION
open (MASS, &quot;<../../$user/items/items.log&quot || &errormes; #READ CONTENTS OF MEMBERS ITEMS
flock (MASS, 2); #CREATE EXCLUSIVE ACCESS
@original = <MASS>; #DUMP ALL ITEMS TO ARRAY
flock (MASS, 8); #RELEASE EXCLUSIVE ACCESS
close (MASS); CLOSE FILE

#SPLIT ORIGINAL ARRAY TO SEPARATE ITEMS
$orig = @original[0]; #DUMP CONTENTS OR ARRAY TO SCALOR TO SPLIT
@compare = split(/:/, $orig); #INDIVIDUAL ITEMS ACCESSIBLE WITH DUMMY VARIABLE
$numitems2 = @compare; #STORE NUMBER OF ITEMS TO VARIABLE

print &quot;hello&quot;;


For some odd reason, File opens fine and is read, but hello doesn't print. If I remove the code that opens the file, hello prints fine. This is part of a routine that is going to delete items from a comma delimited text file, it's odd, I am decently familiar with perl, I just run into this output problem sometimes when I open a file. What causes this? Thanks

 

[hmerrill]

I can't say that I understand why &quot;hello&quot; isn't being printed. Shouldn't have anything to do with opening the file for input. Are you running this script from the command line?

Try putting in more print's - are you sure execution is progressing all the way until the end of the script?
Hardy Merrill
Mission Critical Linux, Inc.

http://www.missioncriticallinux.com

 

[quan]

I am trying to read the file contents, not write to them. I have tried additional print statements.

 

[hmerrill]

What is happening? Is the script getting stuck? Is it getting all the way to the end? What is it doing?
Hardy Merrill
Mission Critical Linux, Inc.

http://www.missioncriticallinux.com

 

[quan]

Explorer says done in bottom right corner and screen is blank

 

[quan]

Doing some code busting, seems that if I remove the second split

ITEMS
$orig = @original[0]; #DUMP CONTENTS OR ARRAY TO SCALOR TO SPLIT
@compare = split(/:/, $orig); #INDIVIDUAL ITEMS ACCESSIBLE WITH DUMMY VARIABLE

I get my print output, now to figure out why this is hanging on this statement

 

[greadey]

Have you tried running this under the -w switch or even add the line;

use diagnostics -verbose;

The line -

$orig = @original[0];

doesn't make sense since @original[0] will be a scalar i.e. $original[0] - from the file reading operation, each line that goes into @original will be a scalar - not an array. I suspect this is causing the problem.

If your programme starts

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

you'll pick things like this up.

 

[quan]

The way I have it set up is the I have 2 lists items double delimited.

monkey,cow,dog,cat:house,dog,monkey:

I split once to separate the two lists by the colon, I then split again to access individual elements in each list. The reason I use $orig = @orignal[0] is so that it accesses the first member of array original which is the entire
monkey,cow,dog,cat:house,dog,monkey:
which I split to access the two lists.

I dumped the @original and dumped files read to a scalor. Tested by printing the scalor. As soon as I put the split in I am back to zip outout. Not sure what you meant by &quot;use strict;&quot;? or the perl switch &quot;-w&quot;, If you don't mind could you give a little more explanation. Thanks

 

[greadey]

use strict; # turns on strict usage of variables, and doesn't allow you to use unsafe constructs.
The -w switch turns on warnings.

If you want to access the first member of an array you MUST use $array[0] - NOT @array[0].
If all you have is one line from the file do this;

$line = <FILE>;

($first, $second) = split(/:/, $line);


hope this helps.