http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1007569


in reply to Reading files n lines a time

sub readNLines { my $lines_to_read = shift or die '....'; my @lines_read; while(<>) { push( @lines_read, $_ ); last if @lines_read == $lines_to_read; } if ( @lines_read != $lines_to_read ) { # error condition } return @lines_read; } while (@lines = readNLines(4)) { do_stuff() }

I might even consider the question "What am I reading from the file?" - if it is a record, then I might instead change readNLines to readRecord (as well as the surrounding usage of the data). Then the concept is abstract, and if the format of a record changes, you modify the reading piece. In my opinion,

while ( my $record = readRecord( ... ) ) { ... }
tells me much more in the context that I am concerned with than
while ( $line1=<> && $line2=<> && $line3=<>... ) { ... }

Just my $0.02.

--MidLifeXis