Re: UPDATE: Variable number of words/fields in a line/record

[jeroenes]

Don't use variables, but an array or hash. Would do something like:

while( <> ){
  split;
  splice @_, 0, 2; #removes first two elements
  store_elements_function( @_ ); #sub to store the remainder
}

If you really want to name the items, use a hash. Define the names first:

my @std_keys = qw/proto .../;
my @ext_keys = qw/name9 name10 name11/;
..
#and in loop:
  my %hash;
  if( @_ < 9 ){
    @hash{@std_keys} = @_;
  } else {
    @hash{(@std_keys, @ext_keys)} = @_;
  }
  print "My proto is: ",$hash{'proto'},"\n";

...

Hope this helps. You can read up on it in perldata.

Jeroen
"We are not alone"(FZ)