Perl Function

split(delimeter, string);

Note that the delimeter is used as a part of a regular expression that splits the string. It is NOT a simple string. So if you try to split a file name at the period with split(".",$filename) you will get nothing. Useing split("\.", $filename) also doesn't work, be cause that just passes the "." to the regexp. You need to use split("\\.", $filename) so that split get a first parameter of "\." which perl apparently turns into a regexp of "m/\./".

For even more fun, try splitting $path = "C:\\perl\\bin" on the "\": split("\\", $path) just generates a lovely "Trailing \ in regex m/\/" error message. The secret? Two pair. split("\\\\",$path) works just great. Split actually gets "\\" which gets turned into "m/\\/" which then splits on "\".

If you try to just supply the string and not the delimiter, it takes the string from $_. i.o.w. delimeter is not optional

See also: http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/func/split.html

Questions:

• giles.chapman at TakeThisOuTdb.com asks:

  Hi,
  
  I need to separate tags that are all grouped together with no spacing in between eg,
  
  2005-11-28 15:51:22: DEBUG: importFixPumpdata: 2005/11/18 00:06:46:187: FIXPump: Received data on connection {CLIENT} [8=FIX.4.29=024335=D50=DCN3230197=N57=RISKGATEWAY34=93849=CLIENTFUT_EXLINK56=EXLINK_CLIENT43=N52=20051118-05:06:46200=200512207=Japan40=255=TSE 01 0F2005Z11=fud630_20051118167=FUT54=159=044=138.0821=238=1560=20051118-05:06:461=ATOP1110=032]
  
  In the [] there are a number of FIX tags, eg '8=FIX.4.2' and there are no spaces in between, so the next FIX tag immediately foloows the previous one, 8=FIX.4.29=02433 and so on. Any ideas on how I can separate them? I have tried a number of REGEX and using split.
  
  PS They are all on the one line as well.
  
  Many thanks
  
  Giles

  James Newton replies: I don't see how you can seperate those even as a human. Do the "FIX" tags always have one digit past the decimal? Are the "#=" seperators always one digit followed by the equal sign?+

  +

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