http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=103970

elbie has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi all. I have a long list of values which I want to put into an array, but some of those values have spaces in them.

It would be easiest, I feel, if I could just use qw//, but I can't figure out how to get around the splitting on whitespace.

Right now, my best solution that I can think of would be to use something in place of whitespace, and do a regex on the array later: 

my @array = ( qw/one two three four_and_a_half/ );
s/_/ /g for( @array );

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But this could get rather cumbersome for large arrays, and at some point in the future, I might need to use whatever character I pick within an element of the array. (Well, okay, I can pick something weird like \007, but ya never know.)

Is there another way to do this?

elbieelbieelbie

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Escaping white space with qw//
by dga (Hermit) on Aug 10, 2001 at 22:02 UTC

    If they're really big them maybe a __DATA__ area? 

    @array=<DATA>;
chop @array; #zap off \n's

...

__DATA__
one
two
three
four and a half

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    If you use Inline::File then you can have multiple named DATA handles which can be accessed seperately via their <DATA> handles.

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[d/l]
      Interesting... I seem to recall hearing the idea of multiple named __DATA__ areas before, but don't remember where.

      Too bad it doesn't work on Windows.

      —John

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        I've got it working on NT, with ActiveState build 522.

        -- Frag.

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Re: Escaping white space with qw//
by thatguy (Parson) on Aug 10, 2001 at 22:06 UTC
    what about assigning your values to an variable sepereated by a comma and then spliting it into an array?
    my $values="one,two,three,four and a half,five";
my @array=split(/,/, $values);

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    more than one way and all that.

    Update: as dga pointed out, this would run into the same problem you are having now should a comma ever make it's way into your data.

    I think if you have a good idea of what your data will look like then use whatever you feel comfortable with as your delimiter.
    -p

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[d/l]

      Though same problem with a character in the input data which is special.

      Though maybe if having the values in a compact area is desired. 

      my $values="one , two , three , four and a half , five";
my @array=split(' , ', $values);

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      This would split on a series of characters unlikely to appear naturally.

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[d/l]
Re: Escaping white space with qw//
by scain (Curate) on Aug 10, 2001 at 22:13 UTC
    elbie,

    I believe both dga and thatguy are offering good examples. What you have to ask yourself is, "How do I know where the breaks should occur?" Only when you have answered that for yourself can you create a solution that will actually work. So far, you only know that white space is not the solution. So what is?

    Scott

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