I need to modify this perl script. 

# create file
$NEWFILE = "/usr/www/titles/$ProductName.shtml";
$shtml = qq[<!--#include
virtual="/cgi-bin/products.cgi?input_item=$Asin&input_search_type=AsinSearch"
-->];
$shtml .= qq[<!-- $ProductName -->];

if ($NEWFILE ne '') {
open (NEWFILE, ">$NEWFILE");
print NEWFILE "$shtml";
close (NEWFILE);
}
# end create file

So right now the name of the file created is the variable
$ProductName. I would like to create a new variable
$TruncatedProductName. I would like that variable to be the same as
$ProductName, but with the spaces converted to underscore (_) and
truncated either

1. before the first colon
2. or if there is no colon, after 25 characters, truncate at the end
of a word.

So, if the $ProductName is "Go to the store and buy some milk and eat
it"
then $TruncatedProductName should be "Go_to_the_store_and_buy" 

If it is "Go to the store: buy some milk" then it should be
"Go_to_the_store"

---

Clarification of Question by questioner1234-ga on 05 Aug 2003 10:49 PDT

Also if possible, I would like to remove punctuation marks from the string.

Hi, 

#! perl


$ProductName = "Go. to the! store?: buy some milk!";

# Use Split to break out the truncated part from the rest of the 
# sentence 
my ($TruncatedProductName, $restOfName) = split /:/, $ProductName; 

# Now we use regex to do the rest

# remove punctuation marks from the string 

 $TruncatedProductName =~ s/\!|\?|\.//sig;

# change spaces to underscores 

 $TruncatedProductName =~ s/ /_/sig;

# and see what we have now 
print $TruncatedProductName, "\n";


And there you have it, no worries at all. 

Thanks, 

webadept-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by questioner1234-ga on 05 Aug 2003 11:18 PDT

seems to work well but I wanted to limit the number of characters to
25. Also I think I should remove "the" "a" "and" "of" "on" "or".

---

Request for Answer Clarification by questioner1234-ga on 05 Aug 2003 11:19 PDT

Also I will add $2 in payment to add the removal of "the" "a" "and"
"of" "on" "or". thanks

---

Clarification of Answer by webadept-ga on 05 Aug 2003 16:44 PDT

Hi, 

In the future when dealing with the Researchers it is better to wait
until they have responded to all of your clarification requests before
rating the question.

Here is the rest of the code you are looking for:

#! perl 
 
 
$ProductName = "Go. to the! store?: buy some milk!"; 

# check to see if it is more than 25 characters in length
my $l = length($ProductName);
if($l > 25)
  {
  print "Greater", "\n";
    if(index($ProductName,":") > 25)
       {
         print "Truncating \n"; 
         $TruncatedProductName = substr($ProductName,0,25);
	 print $TruncatedProductName, "\n";
       }
    else
       {


# Use Split to break out the truncated part from the rest of the  
# sentence  
	 ($TruncatedProductName, $restOfName) = split /:/, $ProductName;  
	 print $TruncatedProductName, "\n";
       } # end if else for index of : 
       
 } # end check for length 
# Now we use regex to do the rest 
 
# remove punctuation marks from the string  
 
 $TruncatedProductName =~ s/\!|\?|\.//sig; 
 
	 print $TruncatedProductName, "\n";
# remove "the" "a" "and" "of" "on" "or"

 $TruncatedProductName =~ s/( the | a | and | of | or )/ /sig;
	 print $TruncatedProductName, " : here\n"; 

 #remove extra spaces created by taking out the words above 
 while($TruncatedProductName =~ /  /)
  {
    $TruncatedProductName =~ s/  / /sig; 
  }

# change remaining spaces to underscores  
 
 $TruncatedProductName =~ s/ /_/sig; 
 
# and see what we have now  
print $TruncatedProductName, "\n"; 

Thanks again, 

webadept-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by webadept-ga on 05 Aug 2003 16:46 PDT

oh darn.. forgot something there.. the truncating after last word..
I'll get that to you in a bit.. sorry..

webadept-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by webadept-ga on 05 Aug 2003 16:59 PDT

#! perl 
$ProductName = "Go. to the! store? buy some milk!: and some cookies"; 

# check to see if it is more than 25 characters in length
my $l = length($ProductName);
if($l > 25)
  {
  print "Greater", "\n";
    if(index($ProductName,":") > 25)
       {
         print "Truncating \n"; 
	 
	 @mystring = split/ /, $ProductName;
	 my $i = 0;
	 my $c = 0;

	 while($c < 25)
	  {
	    $c = $c + length($mystring[$i]);
	    
	    if($c < 25)
	       {
                  $TruncatedProductName =  $TruncatedProductName." ".$mystring[$i];
	       }
	    $i++;   
          } # end while 
           $TruncatedProductName =~ s/^\s+//;  # remove the leading white space

	 
       }
    else
       {


# Use Split to break out the truncated part from the rest of the  
# sentence  
	 ($TruncatedProductName, $restOfName) = split /:/, $ProductName;  
	 print $TruncatedProductName, "\n";
       } # end if else for index of : 
       
 } # end check for length 
# Now we use regex to do the rest 
 
# remove punctuation marks from the string  
 
 $TruncatedProductName =~ s/\!|\?|\.//sig; 
 
	 print $TruncatedProductName, "\n";
# remove "the" "a" "and" "of" "on" "or"

 $TruncatedProductName =~ s/( the | a | and | of | or )/ /sig;
	 print $TruncatedProductName, " : here\n"; 
 while($TruncatedProductName =~ /  /)
  {
    $TruncatedProductName =~ s/  / /sig; 
  }

# change spaces to underscores  
 
 $TruncatedProductName =~ s/ /_/sig; 
 
# and see what we have now  
print $TruncatedProductName, "\n"; 


That should do it for you. 

Thanks and sorry for the oversites

webadept-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by questioner1234-ga on 05 Aug 2003 18:20 PDT

Replacing the "the" doesn't work if there's more than one "the" or if
it is "of the" it seems to only replace the "the" not the "of"

So:

The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

comes out:

The_New_Drawing_on_Right_Side_the_Brain

---

Clarification of Answer by webadept-ga on 05 Aug 2003 23:29 PDT

Hi, 

I also changed the word removal around, to take out the unwanted
words, before the truncating begins, giving your final outcome a
better chance of being meaningful..

#! perl  
my $ProductName = "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain ";

my $i = 0;
my $c = 0;
my $TruncatedProductName = "";
my $l = 0; 
my @mystring =();

# clean  the string 
#
   
$ProductName =~ s/^\s+//;

$ProductName =~ s/\s+$//;



 while($ProductName =~ /  /) 
    { 
       $ProductName =~ s/  / /sig;  
    } 

while(  $ProductName =~ / the |^the /)
  {
     $ProductName =~ s/ the |^the / /sig;
  }

while(  $ProductName =~ / a |^a /)
  {
     $ProductName =~ s/ a |^a / /sig;
  }
while(  $ProductName =~ / and |^and /)
  {
     $ProductName =~ s/ and |^and / /sig;
  }
while(  $ProductName =~ / or |^or /)
  {
     $ProductName =~ s/ or |^or / /sig;
  }
while(  $ProductName =~ / of |^of /)
  {
     $ProductName =~ s/ of |^of / /sig;
  }

  
 
# check to see if it is more than 25 characters in length 
 $l = length($ProductName); 
if($l > 25) 
  { 
    if(index($ProductName,":") > 25) 
       { 
   
  	my @mystring = split/ /, $ProductName; 
  	my $i = 0; 
  	my $c = 0; 
 
  	while($c < 25) 
   	{ 
     		$c = $c + length($mystring[$i]); 
      
     	    if($c < 25) 
        	{ 
                  $TruncatedProductName =  $TruncatedProductName."
".$mystring[$i];
        	} 
     	    $i++;    
        } # end while  
      $TruncatedProductName =~ s/^\s+//;  # remove the leading white
space
 
   
       } 
    else 
       { 
   	         @mystring = split/ /, $ProductName; 
  		 $i = 0;
  		 $c = 0; 
 
  		while($c < 25) 
   		{ 
     			$c = $c + length($mystring[$i])+1; 
      
     			if($c < 25) 
        		{
                  	  $TruncatedProductName =  $TruncatedProductName."
".$mystring[$i];
        		}# end if truncating  
     			$i++;    
          	} # end while  
		
      	$TruncatedProductName =~ s/^\s+//;  # remove the leading white
space
	
 
          # Use Split to break out the truncated part from the rest of
the
          # sentence 
	  
	  

       } # end if else for index of :  
        
 } # end check for length 
else
 {
              ($TruncatedProductName, $restOfName) = split /:/,
$ProductName;
 }
 
# Now we use regex to do the rest  
  
# remove punctuation marks from the string   
  
 $TruncatedProductName =~ s/\!|\?|\.//sig;  
  
  
  while($TruncatedProductName =~ /  /) 
    { 
       $TruncatedProductName =~ s/  / /sig;  
    } 
$TruncatedProductName =~ s/^\s+//;

$TruncatedProductName =~ s/\s+$//; 
# change spaces to underscores   
  
 $TruncatedProductName =~ s/ /_/sig;  
  
# and see what we have now   
print $TruncatedProductName, "\n";  



Thanks, 

webadept-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by webadept-ga on 05 Aug 2003 23:46 PDT

Also, one of the great things about Perl is there is always more than
one way to do something. Instead of all those while loops for each
word, we could make it a single while loop, putting all the words you
want to take out in an array.

This doesn't make it any faster, but it is easier to edit this way,
when you want to add a word, just add it to the array.

# clean  the string 
#
   


my @myXwords = ("( T|the )","( A|a )","( A|and )", "( O|or )", "( O|of
)");

foreach my $xword (@myXwords)
 {

   while($ProductName =~ /(^| )$xword/sig)
     {
	 $ProductName =~ s/(^| )$xword/ /sig;
     }
 }

$ProductName =~ s/^\s+//;

$ProductName =~ s/\s+$//;
 
 while($ProductName =~ /  /) 
    { 
       $ProductName =~ s/  / /sig;  
    } 


thanks, 

webadept-ga