Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucbvax!are.berkeley.edu!casterln
From: casterln@are.berkeley.edu (Gary Casterline)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: sh can do it -- how about perl?
Message-ID: <36587@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 29 May 90 06:43:43 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: casterln@are.berkeley.edu (Gary Casterline)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Berkeley
Lines: 27

The following little script works fine.  It's part of the code
in "UNIX Relational Database Management", by Manis, Schaffer and
Jorgensen.  I'd like to do something similar in perl, but I'm
having trouble getting the right pipe(s) set up.

The idea is to use one program for both 'tables' and 'lists' by
formatting a 'listfile' temporarily as a 'tablefile', feeding this
data (in 'tableform') back into itself, and finally translating back
to the original list format.  I like the idea and its so short in sh:

	#!/bin/sh
	read HEAD
	if test -z "$HEAD"     # first line blank means listfile
	then
		(echo; cat) | listtotable | $0 $* | tabletolist
		exit 0
	fi
	[... further processing on 'table' using sh and awk not shown ...]

I must admit I'm learning a lot in my efforts to duplicate this,
but I'm sure there must be a cleaner way than the avenues I've 
explored so far.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
----
Gary Casterline             .  ._ ._   Agricultural & Resource Economics
casterln@are.berkeley.edu  /-\ |< |-_  207 Giannini Hall
(415) 642-5583                         UC Berkeley, CA 94703
----