Re: Strings & Patterns

[davido]

You've got to start somewhere. "I don't know what I'm doing." is a cop out. You won't ever fix the engine if you refuse to open the hood and get your hands dirty. I'm going to try to explain why you're not getting a useful answer here, or in your StackOverflow post:

We have no idea what your programming background is, and without more information have no idea what help you need from us. The tone of the question suggests programming is a totally new concept for you. If that's the case, you'll need to start by learning to program, and could learn programming as you learn Perl. ...or it could be that you already know how to program, and even know Perl, but are just unfamiliar with things like LWP::Simple and HTML::TokeParser::Simple, or Mojo::UserAgent with Mojo::DOM. But whatever your background, you'll have to chart a course. Here's one road map. Decide where you are on the map, and get moving. Then come back and ask us when you have something concrete to ask.

1. Learn the basics of programming.
2. Learn baby-Perl. -- perlintro, perlsyn, perlsub, perlretut, and Learning Perl from O'Reilly.
3. Learn to search for and install CPAN modules.
4. Learn how to use LWP::Simple and HTML::TokeParser::Simple, or Mojo::UserAgent and Mojo::DOM.

The later steps will be rather trivial once you've gotten past the earlier steps, but the earlier steps might be more work than you're willing to commit to, if you just need to get the job done. If you're in that situation; just needing to get the job done without wasting time learning to be a programmer, you could hire someone who has taken the time to learn.

However, if you're actually interested in learning to program with Perl, dig in and enjoy! But start with "Hello world!" and gain enough familiarity with the basics that you'll know what to do when you get to the stage that you find yourself reading the POD for LWP::Simple.