Re^2: creating array of hashes from input file

[chimiXchanga]

that looks beautiful! may I kindly ask, would this layout would be an easier an approach to parse? And if so, how would you approach joining the data on the next line to the proper column?

                    100 Civic Center Way                              
+                        Page 1 of 3

                    Calabasas, California 91302
                                                                      
+                        7/12/2012 9:21:02AM




                      MONTHLY EXTERNAL MODIFICATIONS PERMITS REPORT
                                        Jun 2012



Permit Issued   Address                               Description


06/01/2012      26166 ROYMOR                          Upgrade panel fr
+om 100 amp to 200 amp
                DR


06/04/2012      24956 NORMANS                         (6) light fixtur
+es @ patio; (3) branch circuits; (4) electric
                                                      heaters
                WAY


06/05/2012      4273 VICASA                           Construct 339 SF
+ Covered Loggia
                DR


06/07/2012      26011 ALIZIA CANYON                   R/R (1) <100K BT
+U Furnace in garage; () <100K BTU
                                                      condenser outsid
+e (NO DUCTS TO BE CHANGED OUT)
                DR E


06/07/2012      4240 LOST HILLS                       R/R (7) windows 
+(like for like) AT LEAST ONE PANE MUST
                                                      BE TEMPERED
                RD 1503


06/08/2012      3574 ELM                              Construct Retain
+ing Wall in front of (E) retaining wall:        4
                                                      1/2' average x 3
+2 LF = approx. 144 SF
                DR


06/13/2012      4026 TOWHEE                           Construct a 460 
+SF Pool/49 SF Spa
                DR

[poj]

would this layout would be an easier an approach to parse

Maybe, depends on what pages 2 and 3 are like. Are you parsing many reports all formatted the same ?. Or is the 3 pages just a small sample of the real report.

#!perl
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my $infile = 'report1.txt';

# date address description
my $fmt   = "A16 A38 A*";
my @data  = ();
my $recno = -1;
my $flag  = 0;

open IN,'<',$infile or die "$infile $!";
while (<IN>){
  chomp;
  next unless /\S/;
  $flag = 0 if /Page \d of \d/;
  
  my ($date,$addr,$desc) = unpack $fmt,$_;
  if ( $date =~ /\d\d.\d\d.20\d\d/ ){
    $flag = 1;  
    ++$recno;  
    $data[$recno] = [ $date,$addr,$desc ];
  } elsif ($flag) {
    $data[$recno][1] .= ' '.$addr if $addr;
    $data[$recno][2] .= ' '.$desc if $desc; 
  }
}
close IN;
print scalar(@data)." records read\n";
print Dumper \@data;

poj

[Corion]

Here, instead of a regex I would likely use unpack with the appropriate template(s).

Append to %info until you encounter an empty line, then flush.