Homework 1: Flat-File Processing in Perl

Assigned: Week One
Due: Week Two

It is common in DBMS-less database-style applications to store information in a flat file, with one record per line. The different fields in a record are then separated by some character, such as a comma or a colon (you may recall Greenspun's rant about CSV). In this homework, you'll work with such files in a number of ways. Feel free to come up with your own variations. You should plan to get through A and B and some additional work. I expect that not all of yhou will get through C.

You should treat this like any other large programming project: For parts B and C Think about how you break the problem up into smaller parts, and then figure out the Perl for solving those smaller parts. (You may also choose a more bottom-up design if you'd like.)

A. Design a simple flat file for some application of your choice. You might list books, CDs, golf clubs, whatever. Fill in at least ten lines of data.

B. Write a Perl script that takes command line parameters for (1) a database file in the format from A and (2) patterns that select data items. Your script should output all matching lines in HTML format. For example,

% selectcd samscds -artist "Van Morrision"
% selectcd samscds -title ".*dance.*"

C. Generalize your script so that the flat file can contain the names of columns on the first row.