[SOLVED] Output to another file help

I'm working on a script where I'm given a CSV file with info (first and last names, ssn, address, etc) and I first need to separate everything, which the code does, but then I need to make an output file with the first letter of the first name, last 3 letters of last name, and more... My problem is the output file is blank after I run the script to see if anything is getting written in. See code below

 
#! /usr/bin/perl
# CSC 310 Project # 1


print "Enter filename: ";
chomp($fileName = <STDIN>);
open (FILE, '<', $fileName) || die ("Could not open $fileName\n");


while ($line = <FILE>){
    print "\n";
    ($lastName,$firstName,$ssn,$address,$city,$state,$zip,$phone) = sp
+lit ',', $line;
    print "$lastName, $firstName\n"."$ssn\n"."$address\n", "$city $sta
+te $zip\n";

    open (PSWD, '>>', 'passwd.txt');
    print PSWD "$firstName[1]\n";
}
[download]

Any help or reference to help is appreciated!

Comment on [SOLVED] Output to another file help Download Code
Re: Output to another file help by roboticus (Canon) on Nov 08, 2012 at 21:21 UTC
jaffinito34: You're treating `$firstName` as an array reference, but it's presumably a string. What you want to do is create a variable that holds the first initial, then you can print that. Something like this: `my $firstName = 'Marco'; my $firstInitial = substr($firstName, 0, 1); print "First initial is '$firstInitial'\n";` [download] Read the documentation for substr to see how it works. ...roboticus When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Output to another file help by jaffinito34 (Acolyte) on Nov 08, 2012 at 21:36 UTC
PERFECT!, any ideas how to quickly convert the firstInitial to lowercase? Right now my script outputs the first initial, first 3 of the last name, and last 4 of ssn, but it does so that it looks like this: First, Last, 000-000-0000, etc... output: FLas0000 I'm trying to get it like: flas0000	[reply]
Re^2: Output to another file help by jaffinito34 (Acolyte) on Nov 08, 2012 at 21:39 UTC
Nevermind, found out about lc() function.	[reply]
Re: Output to another file help by Kenosis (Deacon) on Nov 08, 2012 at 22:13 UTC
...I need to make an output file with the first letter of the first name, last 3 letters of last name... `use strict; use warnings; my $firstName = 'PATRICK'; my $lastName = 'STERL'; my $fileNamePart = "$firstName$lastName" =~ s/^(.).+(...)$/\L$1$2/r; warn qq{Be careful: "$fileNamePart" may be an obscene word.};` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Output to another file help by space_monk (Hermit) on Nov 09, 2012 at 01:29 UTC
Please in the name of whatever deity/deities you worship, stop using "split" to break up lines of CSV files and use Text::CSV or a similar library instead. In the particular example, the original program is reading in an address, which is almost certain to contain a comma somewhere, and the normal way round that is to quote the field. split won't handle this, but CSV parsing libraries such as Text::CSV will take it in their stride. A Monk aims to give answers to those who have none, and to learn from those who know more.	[reply]


"be consistent"
	PerlMonks

[SOLVED] Output to another file help

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