Using the split and join functions

Using the split and join functions

Finally, regular expressions can be used to split a string into separate fields. To do so, we use the "split" function with the format:

@split_array = split
(/[pattern_to_split_on]/, [string_to_split]);

For example, CGI applications often use the split function to read the fields of database rows. Consider the following code snippet:

$database_row = "Selena Sol|213-456-7890|27"; 
@database_fields = split (/\|/, $database_row);

Now @database_fields will include the elements "Selena Sol", "213-456-7890" and "27". Each of these fields can then be processed separately if need be.
The reverse operation is performed with the "join" function that uses the following format:

$joined_string = join
("[pattern_to_join_on]", [list_to_join]);

$new_database_row = join ("\|", @database_fields);

Notice that in the above line, the pipe (|) symbol must be escaped with a backslash (\) because the pipe is a special Perl character.

The =~ operator
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Perl Control Structures