values not pushing to global variable/scheduled tasks

[shadkeene]

Hello again...I've been implementing recent advice on subroutines and it's been allowing for much more efficient code. However, my recent attempt at it has left me scratching my head. Here's my code so far:
One thing that's confusing is when I print "@data" within the subroutine (after the push statement), the values I'm trying to extract show up. However, when I print "@data" in the main part of the code (after I call the subroutine with arguments), nothing is returned.
Thanks for any advice ahead of time.
Shad



#!/perl/bin/perl -w
use CGI qw(:standard);
use CGI::Carp qw(warningsToBrowser fatalsToBrowser);
use strict;
use DBI;

use LWP::Simple;
use HTML::TokeParser::Simple



print header;
print start_html("SLPTrend");



my $ksfo="ksfo";
my $ksac="ksac";
my $kacv="kacv";


my @data= Pressure2($ksfo,$ksac,$kacv); #call subroutine for SLP of various airports
print "$data[0]";

sub Pressure2 {

return "Error: No argument sent to Pressure2" unless @_;
my @apt = @_;

foreach my $icao (@apt) {
my $url = "http://www.atmos.albany.edu/cgi/sa-cgi?$icao";
my $content = get($url) or die "Error getting file: $!";
my $p = HTML::TokeParser::Simple->new( \$content );

while ( my $token = $p->get_token ) {
next unless $token->is_text;
my $line = $token->as_is;
my $slpdata=$line;
my @SLP = split(/\s+/, $slpdata);
use List::Util qw(first);
my $element = first { /\d{4}/ } @SLP; #extracts first element with 4 consecutive numbers(SLP)
push @data, $element;
}

}
return $data[0], $data[1], $data[2];

}

[shadkeene]

the other thing I meant to ask was how can I run a cgi script as a scheduled task in windows xp? I've tried to just run the .cgi file as a scheduled task, but that just opens up the .cgi text document window. I'd like the program to actually run and extract data/place in mysql at a certain time if I'm not at work. Maybe I'd just run the program as a .pl file? And if so, would I just rename my .cgi file to a .pl file? Thanks,
Shad

[FishMonger]

Why did you remove the my @data; statement from the subroutine? Put it back in and see what happens.

[FishMonger]

the other thing I meant to ask was how can I run a cgi script as a scheduled task in windows xp? I've tried to just run the .cgi file as a scheduled task, but that just opens up the .cgi text document window. I'd like the program to actually run and extract data/place in mysql at a certain time if I'm not at work. Maybe I'd just run the program as a .pl file? And if so, would I just rename my .cgi file to a .pl file? Thanks,
Shad

If you're not running the script via an interactive browser session, it doesn't make any sense to write it as a cgi script. Changing the ext from .cgi to .pl doesn't make any difference as far as cgi scripting is concerned. Using .cgi only helps the user to know the context in which the script is to be used.

[shadkeene]

Thanks, I got the scheduled task to run, and I don't know why I took out the declaration within the subroutine...I'll put it back in.
Shad

[shadkeene]

Fishmonger,
I put the my @data; statement back in the subroutine. However, still not getting any returns from the print "@data"; in the main code. I only get values when I use a print statement at the end of the foreach loop.
I can only think that the main code is not referencing the @data that was declared in the subroutine. Thanks for any help. Here's the code.
Shad


#!/perl/bin/perl -w
use CGI qw(:standard);
use CGI::Carp qw(warningsToBrowser fatalsToBrowser);
use strict;

use LWP::Simple;
use HTML::TokeParser::Simple



print header;
print start_html("SLPTrend");



my $ksfo="ksfo";
my $ksac="ksac";
my $kacv="kacv";


my @data= Pressure2($ksfo,$ksac,$kacv); #call subroutine for SLP and define Onshore and Offshore Gradients
print "@data";




sub Pressure2 {
return "Error: No argument sent to FcstPress2" unless @_;
my @apt = @_;
my @data;

foreach my $icao (@apt) {
my $url = "http://www.atmos.albany.edu/cgi/sa-cgi?$icao";
my $content = get($url) or die "Error getting file: $!";
my $p = HTML::TokeParser::Simple->new( \$content );

while ( my $token = $p->get_token ) {
next unless $token->is_text;
my $line = $token->as_is;
my $slpdata=$line;
my @SLP = split(/\s+/, $slpdata);
use List::Util qw(first);
my $element = first { /\d{4}/ } @SLP; #extracts first element with 4 consecutive numbers(SLP)
push @data, $element;
}

}
return $data[0], $data[1], $data[2];

}

print end_html;

[FishMonger]

use Data::Dumper;

sub Pressure2 {
return "Error: No argument sent to FcstPress2" unless @_;
my @apt = @_;
my @data;

foreach my $icao (@apt) {
my $url = "http://www.atmos.albany.edu/cgi/sa-cgi?$icao";
my $content = get($url) or die "Error getting file: $!";
my $p = HTML::TokeParser::Simple->new( \$content );

while ( my $token = $p->get_token ) {
next unless $token->is_text;
my $line = $token->as_is;
my $slpdata=$line;
my @SLP = split(/\s+/, $slpdata);
use List::Util qw(first);
my $element = first { /\d{4}/ } @SLP; #extracts first element with 4 consecutive numbers(SLP)
push @data, $element;
}

}
print Dumper @data;
return $data[7], $data[15], $data[23];

}

[FishMonger]

sub Pressure2 {
return "Error: No argument sent to FcstPress2" unless @_;
my @apt = @_;
my @pressure;

foreach my $icao (@apt) {
my $url = "http://www.atmos.albany.edu/cgi/sa-cgi?$icao";
my $content = get($url) or die "Error getting file: $!";
my ($pressure) = $content =~ /Pressure: ([\d.]+) millibars/;
push @pressure, $pressure;
}
return @pressure;
}

[shadkeene]

Fishmonger,
The last, very concise code you sent, works! Thanks...looks real efficient.
If you have a chance sometime...what does the following actually do?
my ($pressure) = $content =~ /Pressure: ([\d.]+) millibars/;
I don't follow the pressure in parentheses followed by the $content. And I assume you're matching anything with Pressure: followed by a number followed by millibars. Do the parentheses of the $pressure match up with the digit and period in the parentheses...to reference the pressure numbers? Thanks,
Shad

[FishMonger]

Read this perldoc, it should answer your questions about the regex.

c:\>perldoc perlre

[shadkeene]

will do...thanks again