http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1093597


in reply to HTML/CGI for loop problem

... I'm stuck ...

Write more functions, determine the common parts and turn them into functions, then turn the non-common parts into functions , so you have small functions you can understand

#!/usr/bin/perl -- use strict; use warnings; Main( @ARGV ); exit( 0 ); sub Show_Red_HTML { my( $query ) = @_; my $dirname = '.'; my $js_includes = js_includes(); my $css_includes = stylesheet_includes(); my $title = "This is the redness"; my $drops = red_dropdown_files( $dirname ); my $body = red_form_html( $query, $drops ); return Show_HTML( "$css_includes $js_includes", $title, $body ); } ## end sub Show_Red_HTML sub Show_HTML { my( $head, $title, $body ) = @_; my $header = common_body_header_html(); my $footer = common_body_footer_html(); return qq{<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title> $title </title> $head </head> <body> $header $body $footer </body> </html>}; } ## end sub Show_HTML sub red_dropdown_files { my( $dirname ) = @_; use Path::Tiny qw/ path cwd /; use CGI qw/ escapeHTML /; my @files = path( $dirname )->children; my $ret = ""; for my $file ( @files ) { $ret .= sprintf qq{<option value="%s">%s</option>\n}, escapeHTML( $file ), escapeHTML( $file ); } return $ret; } ## end sub red_dropdown_files

Why write like this? Its easier to test/debug each small part seperately , for example

sub Main { Tests(); # RealProgram(); } ## end sub Main sub Tests { require Test::More; Test::More->import( 'no_plan' ); ## and ok()... test_drops(); } ## end sub Tests sub test_drops { chdir 'testdir'; my $drops = red_dropdown_files( '.' ); ok( int $drops =~ m{\Q<option value="chapter-8.pdf">\E}, 'drops wo +rks' ); } ## end sub test_drops

Its important not to forget to escapeHTML