can't pull lines from a file where NOT = to a searchstring

[dexter48]

I want to search a file for a string, then ignore it and pull out entries that don't contain the string. I've tried lots of things but can't seem to make it work.
file is format is


xxxxxxxxxxx||xxx||xxxxxxx||xxxxx||searchstring||xx xxxx|\xxxxxx <-- dump these
xxxxxxxxxxx||xxx||xxxxxxx||xxxxx||xxxxxxxxxx||xxxx xx|\xxxxxx <--need these lines

using this code works to find the string using =~ but using !~ doesn't seem to do anything

thanks

##############################################################
#Get rid of GP entries
##############################################################
 
open (FHNDL, ">$errorfile") || die "ERROR Could not open file!\n";
open(SEARCHFILE, "<$tempfile1") || die "Could not open file!\n";
while (<SEARCHFILE>)
     {
           if ($_ !~/$searchstring3/)
              {
               print FHNDL $_;
              }
       }
 
close (FHNDL);
###############################################################
 

[numberwhun]

Just a quick look at your code does not tell me what $searchstring3 is getting set to. I wonder if you have to escape the $ because in regular expressions, the $ is a special character meaning match the end of line. You may have to put a \ before it to escape it.

I just tried the following code against your sample dump and it finds only the line without the search string.

use strict;
use warnings;
 
open(FILE, "<./dump.txt");
 
while(<FILE>)
{
    if($_ !~ m/\|\|searchstring\|\|/ig)
    {
        print("$_");
    }
}
 

Regards,

Jeff

[KevinADC]

it looks like it should work. Post some sample data and sample search string.

Jeff:

perl interpolates scalars and arrays in matching regular expressions, so you would not want to escape the $ symbol if that is a scalar being used for the search pattern. When a bare '$' is at the end of the pattern that indicates end of string anchor:

if (/$foo$/) {
   print
}

anyplace else and it is interpreted as a scalar.

[numberwhun]

I knew that it did, but couldn't remember if you had to escape the $. I know at the end of the regex what it means, but didn't know if it should be escaped otherwise.

Well, the code I posted does work, so I would definitely do a check to ensure that the variable is being set to something that exactly matches what is in the unwanted lines by using a print statement then.

Regards,

Jeff

[KevinADC]

OK. Don't escape it unless looking for a literal $ sign in the pattern. :)

[dexter48]

Hi, the function does work
I think the problem was a line feed next to the searchstring. I've modified it search a little bit further along thanks for your help