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From: worley@compass.com (Dale Worley)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Variable output formats
Message-ID: <1990Dec12.214612.6109@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 12 Dec 90 21:46:12 GMT
Sender: mmdf@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU (Uvaarpa Mail System)
Reply-To: worley@compass.com
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 25

To get a variable output format, you have to construct the format
definition as a string and 'eval' it.  For instance,

    $myformat = '@<<<<<<<@<<<<<<<<<<<<@<<<<<<<<<<<<@<<<<<<<<<<<@<<<<<<<<<<';

    eval "
    format STDOUT = 
    $myformat
    \$ARGV[0],\$ARGV[1],\$ARGV[2],\$ARGV[3],\$ARGV[4]
    .
    ";

    write STDOUT;

If you run this program, it prints its first five arguments with the
format in $myformat.

(Remember that the final '.' must be followed by a newline, or the
format definition is syntactically invalid and will not take effect.)

Dale

Dale Worley		Compass, Inc.			worley@compass.com
--
It's okay to crave approval ... isn't it?