Creating a file in perl where part of the filename is an array element

mr kr0nik

I'm new to perl and am a bit stuck. Forgive me if the terminology used below isn't 100% correct.

I have an input file with 5 fields separated by tabs. The third field in the file is the part I want to use, so I think that an array if the best way to reference this field.

Is there any way of creating a file where part of the file name is an array element referring to the field above. The part of the script I'm stuck on is below:

my $VP_Name;
my @stats_output;

open (StatsFile, "/export/home/admin/stats_files/stats_output") || die "Could not find file";

while ($VP_Name = <StatsFile>) {
@stats_output = split(/\t/, $VP_Name);

open (FH, ">>/export/home/admin/stats_files/@stats_output[2]&quot || die "Could not create file";

There is more before and after the script that hasn't any impact on what I'm trying to do here. I've a feeling that its something simple like punctuation.

Thanks.

democrates

Long time out of perl but could it be:

open (FH, ">>/export/home/admin/stats_files/".@stats_output[2]) || die "Could not create file";

I'm concatenating the variable to the rest of the file path in case normal interporlation of double-quoted strings doesn't work for array element references, can't recall, could be totally wrong here.

Alternatively
$stats_output = split(/\t/, $VP_Name)[2];
Looks a bit mental but perl just may be powerful enough to deduce the scalar context,

In any event the dogmatic approach:

@stats_output = split(/\t/, $VP_Name);
$stats_output = @stats_output[2];
open (FH, ">>/export/home/admin/stats_files/$stats_output") || die "Could not create file";


I presume it's not a permissions thing, that you've already created files in that directory...

mr kr0nik

Thanks for the help,

I've created the directory but not the files as there are lots of them. I had thought that the open command creates the file if it doesn't exist.

I'll give each of your suggestions a go and let you know how I get on.

Cheers

daymobrew

mr kr0nik wrote: »

while ($VP_Name = <StatsFile>) {
@stats_output = split(/\t/, $VP_Name);

open (FH, ">>/export/home/admin/stats_files/@stats_output[2]&quot || die "Could not create file";

You access list elements with $listname[$number].

open (FH, ">>/export/home/admin/stats_files/$stats_output[2]") || die "Could not create file";

See perlinto or perldoc perldata.