Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!hardy.u.washington.edu!djo7613 From: djo7613@hardy.u.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor) Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl Subject: Needed: a pointer for a perl compare script Message-ID: <12020@milton.u.washington.edu> Date: 30 Nov 90 15:47:36 GMT Sender: news@milton.u.washington.edu Reply-To: djo7613@hardy.u.washington.edu.acs.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor) Organization: University of Washington, Seattle Lines: 21 I've been following this group for awhile, cutting and saving sample scripts like my Mom clips recipes, but I still haven't picked up enough pointers to migrate one of my old Fortran "compare" programs to perl. If I could do this, the users could make their own runs and I'd be free to contemplate a higher order of existence (programming! :) My program reads two files of differing format which are sorted by a unique 5-character label. When two labels match, a new record is written, with info from file A (moved around a bit) written to the "left" and info from file B (again, reformatted a little) written to the "right". Where a given record from file A or B has no counterpart, the same new record is written, with blanks on the "side" without counterpart information. I know this is simple; it's a short program now. But there's something I'm just not seeing that blocks my conversion to perl. A pointer to a suggested construct would be wonderful...I'm happy to work out the details. BTW I've been away for two weeks; did I miss The Announcement about The Book? "Moby" Dick O'Connor djo7613@u.washington.edu Washington Department of Fisheries *I brake for salmonids* Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com