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From: niklas@appli.se (Niklas Hallqvist)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Need detab function
Keywords: detab
Message-ID: <1208@appli.se>
Date: 21 Nov 90 02:29:25 GMT
References: <1990Nov19.210123.20558@gtisqr.uucp>
Organization: Applitron Datasystem AB, GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN
Lines: 31

stu@gtisqr.uucp (Stu Donaldson) writes:

>I need a detab function written in perl.  I'm sure there must be
>something other than the brute force method of implimenting this.

>Any help would be appreciated...

>	How about a one liner? :-)

Well, Here's my try:

perl -pe 's/^([^\t]*)\t/$1." "x(8-length($1)%8)/e while /\t/;'

Now, this is a bad one, since I loop once for each tab on a line.
I thought this one would take care of that problem, but NO, it did NOT!

perl -pe 's/^([^\t]*)\t/$1." "x(8-length($1)%8)/eg;'

Shouldn't the g flag work with the e flag, doing just what I did explicitly
in my first try?

Now, don't worry... I'm sure Randal & Larry will replace this script
with a thirty-byter... ;^)

						Niklas

-- 
Niklas Hallqvist	Phone: +46-(0)31-40 75 00
Applitron Datasystem	Fax:   +46-(0)31-83 39 50
Molndalsvagen 95	Email: niklas@appli.se
S-412 63  GOTEBORG, Sweden     mcsun!sunic!chalmers!appli!niklas