Perl wonky IF outcome inside a @list foreach loop

OldGaf · 09-17-2009, 06:35 PM

Thanks for reading another post from a frustrated Perl noob

Sorry for the long post but I want to be as clear as possible.

setup to reproduce:

3 test files containing names:

File name --- File Content
---------- ------------------------------------
mailgroup1 - MARY BOB FRANK MYNAME JANE

mailgroup2 - SUSAN CHRIS WANDA

mailgroup3 - ANNE MYNAME DEBBIE JOHN MIKE FRANK

Code:

Quote:

1 #!/bin/perl
2
3 use strict;
4
5 system(clear);
6
7
8 my $user = "MYNAME";
9 my @groups = ('mailgroup1', 'mailgroup2','mailgroup3',);
10
11 foreach my $group (@groups) {
12 chomp $group;
13 my @group_list = `cat $group`;
14 print "$group\n";
15 foreach my $match (@group_list) {
16 chomp $match;
17 if ($match eq $user) {
18 print "*** $match ***\n\n";
19 } else {
20 print "$match\n\n";
21 }
22
23 }
24 }
25
26 print "$user <--- is what \$user returns.\n\n";
27

I want to print to the screen all members from the mailgroups with *'s surrounding MYNAME i.e. *** MYNAME ***

This does not happen

With the above I get this:

Quote:

mailgroup1
MARY BOB FRANK MYNAME JANE

mailgroup2
SUSAN CHRIS WANDA

mailgroup3
ANNE MYNAME DEBBIE JOHN MIKE FRANK

MYNAME <--- is what $user returns.

If I change line 17 to this:
17 if ($match = $user) {

I get this:

Quote:

mailgroup1
*** MYNAME ***

mailgroup2
*** MYNAME ***

mailgroup3
*** MYNAME ***

MYNAME <--- is what $user returns.

If I change line 17 to this:
17 if ($match =~ $user) {

I get this:

Quote:

mailgroup1
*** MARY BOB FRANK MYNAME JANE ***

mailgroup2
SUSAN CHRIS WANDA

mailgroup3
*** ANNE MYNAME DEBBIE JOHN MIKE FRANK ***

MYNAME <--- is what $user returns.

The output I am looking for is this:

Quote:

mailgroup1
MARY BOB FRANK *** MYNAME *** JANE

mailgroup2
SUSAN CHRIS WANDA

mailgroup3
ANNE *** MYNAME *** DEBBIE JOHN MIKE FRANK

What am I doing wrong? Why does eq not work?

Thanks,
-OG-

lutusp · 09-17-2009, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldGaf

Thanks for reading another post from a frustrated Perl noob

Sorry for the long post but I want to be as clear as possible.

[ snip ]

Quote:

If I change line 17 to this:
17 if ($match = $user) {

But that is an assignment, not a comparison. You want:

Code:

if ($match == $user) {

a = b # assignment! b is copied to a
a == b # comparison! b is compared with a

chrism01 · 09-17-2009, 11:33 PM

Actually, he does want a string comparison.
Taking the data files as they appear (1 line each field space separated) I indented(!) the code and amended it. I get the required output

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my $user = "MYNAME";
my @groups = ('mailgroup1', 'mailgroup2','mailgroup3');


foreach my $group (@groups)
{
    my @group_list = split(/ /, `cat $group`);
    chomp(@group_list);

    print "$group\n";

    foreach my $match (@group_list)
    {
        if ($match eq $user)
        {
            print "*** $match *** ";
        }
        else
        {
            print "$match ";
        }
    }
    print "\n\n";
}

print "\n\n$user <--- is what \$user returns.\n\n";

note also the -w switch; highly recommended

OldGaf · 09-18-2009, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrism01

Actually, he does want a string comparison.
Taking the data files as they appear (1 line each field space separated) I indented(!) the code and amended it. I get the required output

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my $user = "MYNAME";
my @groups = ('mailgroup1', 'mailgroup2','mailgroup3');


foreach my $group (@groups)
{
    my @group_list = split(/ /, `cat $group`);
    chomp(@group_list);

    print "$group\n";

    foreach my $match (@group_list)
    {
        if ($match eq $user)
        {
            print "*** $match *** ";
        }
        else
        {
            print "$match ";
        }
    }
    print "\n\n";
}

print "\n\n$user <--- is what \$user returns.\n\n";

note also the -w switch; highly recommended

Most excellent thanks!