comment on

I'd probably do it this way.

#! perl -slw
use strict;

until( eof( DATA ) ) {
    no warnings 'uninitialized';
    printf '%-7.7s %-7.7s ',     <DATA> =~ m[ ([^,]+) , \s* (.+) $]x;
    printf '%7.7s %7.7s %7.7s ', <DATA> =~ m[ ([^/]+) / (?:(\S+)\s+)? 
+(\S+) $]x;
    printf "%s\n",               <DATA> =~ m[^(\S+)];
}

__DATA__
Alanon, Bart
5590/EL
----
O'Lewis, John.
----/--- --
john
Le Much,Bo Jo
3406/165 NS
ed@a.nl
Abe-Jen, Mar-Jo
3421/164D NS
cbest
[download]

Output

P:\test>351465
Alanon  Bart       5590              EL ----
O'Lewis John.      ----     ---      -- john
Le Much Bo Jo      3406     165      NS ed@a.nl
Abe-Jen Mar-Jo     3421    164D      NS cbest
[download]

Examine what is said, not who speaks.

"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
"Think for yourself!" - Abigail

In reply to Re: Need a better way to count input lines by BrowserUk
in thread Need a better way to count input lines by Theo

Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
<code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>
Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.


The stupid question is the question not asked
	PerlMonks