Text::FixedLengthMultiline - Parse text data formatted in space separated columns optionnaly on multiple lines

  use Text::FixedLengthMultiline;

  #234567890 12345678901234567890 12
  my $text = <<EOT;
  Alice      Pretty girl!
  Bob        Good old uncle Bob,
             very old.            92
  Charlie    Best known as Waldo  14
             or Wally. Where's
             he?
  EOT

  my $fmt = Text::FixedLengthMultiline->new(format => ['!name' => 10, 1, 'comment~' => 20, 1, 'age' => -2 ]);

  # Compute the RegExp that matches the first line
  my $first_line_re = $fmt->get_first_line_re();
  # Compute the RegExp that matches a continuation line
  my $continue_line_re = $fmt->get_continue_line_re();

  my @data;
  my $err;
  while ($text =~ /^([^\n]+)$/gm) {
      my $line = $1;
      push @data, {} if $line =~ $first_line_re;
      if (($err = $fmt->parse_line($line, $data[$#data])) > 0) {
          warn "Parse error at column $err";
      }
  }

A row of data can be splitted on multiple lines of text with cell content flowing in the same column space.

The format is given at the contruction time as an array ref. Modifying the array content after the construction call is done at your own risks.

The array contains the ordered sequence of columns. Each colmun can either be:

• a positive integer representing the size of a separating column which is expected to always be filled with spaces.
• a string that matches this regexp: /^(?#mandatory)!?(?#name)[:alnum:]\w*(?:(?#multi)~(?#cont).?)?$/
• • ! means the column is mandatory
  • name is the column name. This will be the key for the hash after parsing.
  • ~ means the column data can be on multiple lines.

Arguments:

• format: an array reference following the FORMAT SPECIFICATION.
• debug

Example:

  my $format = Text::FixedLengthMultiline->new(format => [ 2, col1 => 4, 1, '!col2' => 4 ]);

Parse a table.

  my @table = $fmt->parse_table($text);

Returns an array of hashes. Each hash is a row of data.

Parse a line of text and add parsed data to the hash.

  my $error = $fmt->parse_line($line, \%row_data);

Multiple calls to parse_line() with the same hashref may be needed to fully read a "logical line" in case some columns are multiline.

Returns:

• -col: Parse error. The value is a negative integer indicating the character position in the line where the parse error occured.
• 0: OK
• col: Missing data: need to feed next line to fill remining columns. The value is the character position of the column where data is expected.

Returns a regular expression that matches the first line of a "logical line" of data.

  my $re = $fmt->get_first_line_re();

Returns a regular expression that matches the 2nd line and the following lines of a "logical line".

  my $re = $fmt->get_continue_line_re();

Returns undef if the format specification does not contains any column that can be splitted on multiples lines.

• format()
• to_sprintf()
• See TODO sections in tests bundled with the distribution.

• This module should have been named Text::FixedLengthMultilineFormat, but the current name is already long enough!

You can look for information at:

* RT: CPAN's request tracker

http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Text-FixedLengthMultiline: post bug report there.

* CPAN Ratings

http://cpanratings.perl.org/p/Text-FixedLengthMultline: if you use this distibution, please add comments on your experience for other users.

* Search CPAN

http://search.cpan.org/dist/Text-FixedLengthMultiline/

* AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation

http://annocpan.org/dist/Text-FixedLengthMultiline

Copyright (c) 2005-2010 Olivier Mengué. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

Olivier Mengué, <dolmen@cpan.org>

Related modules I found on CPAN:

• Text::FormatTable
• Text::Table
• Text::FixedLength
• Text::FixedLength::Extra
• Text::Column