I'm trying to replace an element in my array and my code doesn't seem to work.
my @wholeloop = (split //, $loop);
for my $i (0 .. $#wholeloop ) {
if ( $wholeloop[$i] eq "i" ) {
$wholeloop[$i] =~ htmlinsert($offset);
$offset++
}
}
I've read about problematics of doing stuff while iterating through an array, and maybe is there a better solution. I'm trying to replace specific occurences of a character in a string, and array seemed as a reasonable tool to use.
Typically - when iterating on a loop, you don't need to do it via:
for ( 0..$#array) {
Because
for ( @array ) {
will do the same thing, but with an added advantage of $_ being an alias to the array variable.
for my $element ( @wholeloop ) {
if ( $element eq "i" ) {
$element = htmlinsert($offset++);
}
}
$element is an alias so if you change it, you change the array. ($_ will do the same, but I dislike using it when I don't have to, because I think it make less clear code. This is a style/choice matter, rather than a technical one).
However for searching and replacing an element in a string – like you're doing – then you're probably better off using one of the other things perl does really well – regular expressions and pattern replacement. I can't give an example easily though, without knowing what htmlinsert returns.
Something like though:
$loop =~ s/i/newvalue/g;
Will replace all instances of i with a new value.
=~ is Perl's "match regular expression" operator, so unless htmlinsert() returns a regex, it's probably not what you meant to do. You probably want to use =.
A more Perlish way to do this, though, might be to use the map function. map takes a block and an array and runs the block with each element of the array in $_, returning all the values returned by that block. For example:
my @wholeloop = map {
$_ eq "i" ? htmlinsert($offset++) : $_;
} split //, $loop;
(The ? and : perform an "if/else" in a single line; they're borrowed from C. map is borrowed from functional programming languages.)
Perhaps you should use foreach. It is the most suitable for what you are trying to do here
my @array;
foreach ( @array ) {
$_ =~ whatever your replacement is;
}
Now, like Sobrique said, unless htmlinsert returns a RegEx value, that isn't going to work. Also, if you could give us context for "$offset", and what its purpose is, that would be really helpful.
$loop =~ s/([iaeou])/htmlinsert($1)/ge. Note that I have no idea what$offsetis in your code, and why you use it.