NAME

Text::Filter::Cooked - Cooked reader for input files

SYNOPSIS

  use Text::Filter::Cooked;
  my $f = Text::Filter::Cooked->new
    (input => 'myfile.dat',
     comment => "#",
     join_lines => "\\");

  while ( my $line = $f->readline ) {
      printf("%3d\t%s\n", $f->lineno, $line);
  }

DESCRIPTION

Text::Filter::Cooked is a generic input reader. It takes care of a number of things that are commonly used when reading data and configuration files.

• Excess whitespace (leading and trailing) may be removed automatically. Also, multiple whitespace characters may be replaced by a single blank.

• Empty lines may be ignored automatically.

• Lines that end with a custom defined join symbol, ususally a backslash, are joined with the next line.

• Lines that start with a custom defined comment symbol are ignored.

Text::Filter::Cooked is based on Text::Filter, see Text::Filter.

CONSTRUCTOR

The constructor is called new() and takes a hash with attributes as its parameter.

The following attributes are recognized and used by the constructor, all others are passed to the base class, Text::Filter.

ignore_empty_lines

If true, empty lines encountered in the input are ignored.

ignore_leading_whitespace

If true, leading whitespace encountered in the input is ignored.

ignore_trailing_whitespace

If true, trailing whitespace encountered in the input is ignored.

compress_whitespace

If true, multiple adjacent whitespace are compressed to a single space.

join_lines

This must be set to a string. Input lines that end with this string (not taking the final line ending into account) are joined with the next line read from the input.

comment

This must be set to a string. Input lines that start with this string are ignored.