Re: Removing Duplicates from a multiline entry

[trizen]

I would suggest to set the input separator ($/) to paragraph mode (empty string) and get the product id from the beginning of every paragraph.

See the code below:

use strict;
use warnings;

local $/ = "";

my %product;
while (<DATA>) {
    if (/^Product\h+(\d)/) {

        my $id = $1;
        my ($address) = /^fullStreet\h*=\h*(.+)/m;

        if (exists $product{$id}) {
            print "ID <$id> already exists. Address is <$product{$id}{
+address}>.\n";
            # do some other stuff
        }
        else {
            print;
        }

        $product{$id} = {address => $address};
    }
    else {
        warn "Invalid paragraph: <$_>\n";
    }
}

__END__
Product 1
------------------------------------------------------------------
storeId = 1001
phoneNumber = [phone]
availbilityCode = 1
stockStatus = Limited stock
distance = 9.12
city = some city
fullStreet = some address

Product 2
------------------------------------------------------------------
storeId = 2117
phoneNumber = [phone]
availbilityCode = 2
stockStatus = In stock
distance = 7.49
city = some city
fullStreet = some address

Product 3
------------------------------------------------------------------
storeId = 2123
phoneNumber = [phone]
availbilityCode = 1
stockStatus = Limited stock
distance = 8.83
city = some city
fullStreet = some address

Product 1
------------------------------------------------------------------
storeId = 1001
phoneNumber = [phone]
availbilityCode = 1
stockStatus = Limited stock
distance = 8.56
city = some city
fullStreet = some address