windows $argv problems

[erbrose]

Hey all. complete newbie to perl here.. been tasked with learning and altering some basic arguments in a perl script someone wrote for our group. having issues!
here is a tidbit of the code I need to alter..

$fileInput=$ARGV[0];
$fileOut="output".$ARGV[0];
$fileCompare="compare".$ARGV[0];
$fileTtbl="Ttbl.csv"
$file0=$ARGV[1]
 
open (READER,$fileO);
open (TT,$fileTbl);
open (READ, $fileInput);
open (WRITE, ">$fileOut");
open (SPIKE, ">$fileCompare");

I am running on winXP from command line...
so this code works fine if say I am in the directory where the .pl and the .csv files are located.. eg
d:\temp>perl altercsv.pl test.csv test.csv
I want to be able to change the directory of the .csv files.. eg
c:\>perl d:\temp\altercsv.pl d:\data\test.csv d:\data\temp\test.csv

I've seen on other posts where perl uses the backslash as an escape? not complete sure what this means, and I also have seen where perl treats \ and / as the same, so tried
c:\>perl d:/temp/altercsv.pl d:/data/test.csv d:/data/temp/test.csv
have also tried \\ and "" and ''
not sure where to go from here! any help will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
eric

[miller]

Welcome Eric,

Your script assumes that everything is in the current working directory. You aren't going to be able to treat things as if their in other directories without actually modifying the script.

The module that will be most helpful to you is File::Basename. It allows you to easily break a filename into it's path and basename parts. It's also part of perl's core libraries, so you don't have to worry about installing it.

perldoc File::Basename

Anyway, here are some changes that will get you on your way to fixing the script. Please note that along with the minimal directory support, I've also added error messages for your open statements. These are very important; get in the habit of including them. I've also added "use strict;". This change may be more problematic for you as it requires that all the variables in the script be declared with "my". You may want to take that line out for now, but I strongly encourage you to add it back in as it will help you debug the script and more easily maintain it.

Obviously, it sucks taking over someone else's bad code. Even more so when you're just learning. So I wish you luck.

use File::Basename;
 
use strict;
 
my $fileInput = $ARGV[0];
my $file0 = $ARGV[1];
my $fileTtbl = "Ttbl.csv";
 
my ($finBase, $finDir) = fileparse($fileInput);
my $fileOut = $finDir . "output" . $finBase;
my $fileCompare = $finDir . "compare" . $finBase;
 
open(READER, $fileO) or die "Can't open $file0: $!";
open(READ, $fileInput) or die "Can't open $fileInput: $!";
open(TT, $fileTbl) or die "Can't open $fileTbl: $!";
open(WRITE, ">$fileOut") or die "Can't open $fileOut: $!";
open(SPIKE, ">$fileCompare") or die "Can't open $fileCompare: $!";
 

- Miller

[KevinADC]

I believe this should work:

c:\>perl d:/temp/altercsv.pl d:/data/test.csv d:/data/temp/test.csv

[erbrose]

Thank you so much Miller. Definitely on the right track now and slowly but surely picking this code apart and pulling it all back together. Tried 'use strict' but the code I am dealing with if full of holes, so for now have to leave it out, but thanks for the advice!
Cheers,
eric

[miller]

It's when it's full of holes that it's often most important to add in the enforcement of declaration. It's the only way to figure out what's required where. And to discover possible bugs.

Anyway, good luck in your endevour.

- Miller

[erbrose]

One more question on this bit of code. After reading more about FileParce on windows, line 7 should be getting the "fileOut" $fileName (ie output_test) right? but it isn't... any more thoughts...

c:\>perl
d:/temp/code.pl
d:/temp/data/test.csv ($argv[0])
d:/temp/output/output_test.csv ($argv[1])
d:/temp/data/Ttbl.csv ($argv[2])
d:/temp/dummy/compare.csv ($argv[3])

(new lines and $argv's were placed for convenience of reading only)

 use File::Basename;
my $fileInput=$ARGV[0];
my $fileInput2=;$ARGV[1];
my $fileTTable=$ARGV[2];
my $fileO=$ARGV[3];
 
my ($fileName, $finBase, $finDir) = fileparse($fileInput2);
my $fileOut = $finDir.$fileName.$finBase;
my $fileSpike = $finDir."compare".$finBase;

Thanks again all!

[erbrose]

Sorry should have worked on it more before I posted. I did manage to figure it out!
Thanks again everyone!
eric

[miller]

Glad you were able to figure it out :)

Well done,
- Miller