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Dearest Monks,

I am new to programming and this site is helping me A LOT. I'm so close to finishing this script to chop up strings of classical music work titles into title, key, instruments, etc. but for some mysterious reason perl adds a line break I don't want. Why why why??

Script reads a big text file and generates a new file-- ideally with one-to-one line correspondence. These extra line breaks are RUINING MY LIFE! (Ok, not really, but they're a bummer.)

Examples of what I mean and the code I wrote are below.

Sorry this is such a noob question. Thanks for any help!!!

Example input lines:
----------------
Concertino, For Clarinet & Strings (Or Piano) (Based On Tartini Sonata Themes)
Concertino, For Clarinet, Piano, Violin & Cello, Op. 73
Concertino, For Clarinet, Violin & Piano, "Fritz Zorn"
Concertino, For Contrabass & Orchestra
Concertino, For Corno, Bassoon & Orchestra In E Flat

Example output lines (not what I want-- should be each on one line!)
----------------
Concertino, For Clarinet & Strings (Or Piano) (Based On Tartini Sonata Themes) -;;- Concertino Based On Tartini Sonata Themes
-;;- -;;- Clarinet & Strings -;;- -;;- -;;- Or Piano -;;-
Concertino, For Clarinet, Piano, Violin & Cello, Op. 73 -;;- Concertino Piano Violin & Cello
-;;- -;;- Clarinet -;;- Op. 73 -;;- -;;- -;;-
Concertino, For Clarinet, Violin & Piano, "Fritz Zorn" -;;- Concertino Violin & Piano
-;;- -;;- Clarinet -;;- -;;- "Fritz Zorn" -;;- -;;-
Concertino, For Contrabass & Orchestra -;;- Concertino -;;- -;;- Contrabass & Orchestra
-;;- -;;- -;;- -;;-
Concertino, For Corno, Bassoon & Orchestra In E Flat -;;- Concertino Bassoon & Orchestra -;;- E Flat
-;;- Corno -;;- -;;- -;;- -;;-

Eventually I need to run this on a file over 170,000 lines, but I'm just doing short bits until I get the bugs worked out. I know it would be better not to be posting all this code, but I can't figure out where the problem is.


#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use IO::File;

open (FILEY, "tinyWorks.txt") || die "Couldna open it $!\n";
my @works = <FILEY>;
my $line = '';

foreach $line (@works) {
    my $work = $line;       
    my $unmodified_work = $work;
    my $nickname = '';
    my $opus = '';
    my $key = '';
    my $parenth = '';
    my $instruments = '';

    my @all_parenth = (); 
    
    #REMOVE NICKNAME (Anything in quotes)
    if ( $work =~ /(".+")/ )
    {
        $nickname = $1;
        $nickname =~ s/[()]//g; #remove extra parentheses left over in
+ extracted string -- WHY ARE THEY EVEN THERE???
        $work =~ s/$nickname//g; #remove nickname
        $nickname =~ s/^\s+//; #remove leading spaces, if any 
    } 
    
    #REMOVE OPUS ("Op..." or "WoO)
    if ( $work =~ /(Op.? \S+)/ || $work =~ /(WoO.? \S+)/ )
    {
        $opus = $1;
        $opus =~ s/[()]//g; #remove extra parentheses left over in ext
+racted string -- WHY ARE THEY EVEN THERE???
        $work =~ s/$opus//g; #remove opus
        $opus =~ s/,//g;
        $opus =~ s/^\s+//; #remove leading spaces, if any 
    } 
    
    #REMOVE KEY ("In...")
    if ( $work =~ /(In A [^,^\(]+)/ ||
         $work =~ /(In B [^,^\(]+)/ ||
         $work =~ /(In C [^,^\(]+)/ ||
         $work =~ /(In D [^,^\(]+)/ ||
         $work =~ /(In E [^,^\(]+)/ ||
         $work =~ /(In F [^,^\(]+)/ ||
         $work =~ /(In G [^,^\(]+)/
       )
    {
        $key = $1;
        $key =~ s/[()]//g; #remove extra parentheses left over in  ext
+racted string  -- WHY ARE THEY EVEN THERE???
        $work =~ s/$key//g; #remove nickname
        $key =~ s/^\s+//; #remove leading spaces, if any
        $key = substr($key, 3, 100); #remove the substring "In " from 
+beginning
    } 
    
    #REMOVE INSTRUMENTS ("For...")
    if ( $work =~ /(For[^,^\(]+)/ )
    {
        $instruments = $1;
        $instruments =~ s/[()]//g; #remove extra parentheses left over
+ in extracted string -- WHY ARE THEY EVEN THERE???
        $work =~ s/$instruments//g; #remove nickname
        $instruments =~ s/^\s+//; #remove leading spaces, if any 
        $instruments = substr($instruments, 4, 100); #remove the subst
+ring "For " from beginning
    } 
    
    #REMOVE PARENTHESES (any remaining)
    while ( $work =~ /(\([^)]*\))/ )
    {
        $parenth = $1;
        $work =~ s/$parenth//g; #remove anything in parentheses
        $parenth = substr( $parenth, 1, (length($parenth) - 2) ); #rem
+ove parentheses themselves from extracted substring
        $parenth =~ s/^\s+//; #remove leading spaces from extracted pa
+renth string, if any  
        $work =~ s/[()]//g; #remove extra parentheses left over in wor
+k -- WHY ARE THEY EVEN THERE???
        push (@all_parenth, $parenth);
    } 
        
    #CLEAN UP REMAINING STRING
    $work =~ s/[()]//g; #remove extra parentheses left over in work --
+ WHY ARE THEY EVEN THERE???
    $work =~ s/,//g; #remove commas
    $work =~ s/^\s+//; #remove leading spaces, if any 
    
    $unmodified_work =~ s/\n//;
    
    print $unmodified_work, " -;;- ",
          $work, " -;;- ",
          $key, " -;;- ", 
          $instruments, " -;;- ",
          $opus, " -;;- ", 
          $nickname, " -;;- ", 
          join("& ", @all_parenth), " -;;- ", "\n";
}
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In reply to Unwanted line breaks-- why? by jeffrgsf

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