string help

[Neoport]

Hi,

I'm trying to design a database on a text file with the following format:

filename.dat<tab>&quot;information regarding the file&quot;
.
.
.

I was wondering if there's a function I can use to just copy out the filename.dat word from the long string. Because I will be displaying the filename content to the user.

thanks

 

[Neoport]

I think I'll be doing the split function with the tab \t and it will separate the strings into an array, after this I'll assign the first element of the array as my filename.

Thanks

 

[MikeLacey]

that will do it fine.

another way to do it (there's always more than one, i've heard) is this (assumes the line from the file is in $_)
[tt]
/\t/;
$_ = $`;
[/tt]
these two statements find the first tab character in $_ and then assign everything before that character to $_
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com