Process multiple documents into a single file

multi_doc_prc.pl - Process multiple documents into a single file

This is an example of one of the things that Perl does best, text and file manipulation. I wrote this for a specific project that entailed taking multiple single-page text files that were actually parts of multi-page files. This script allowed me to process as many single files as I needed into a multi-page file. With slight modification, this script can also filter-out items that are not to be transfered to the final document.




#!/usr/local/bin/perl 



print "\nThis script will append multiple documents to a single document.\n";





print "\n\nWhat is the file to be written to? ";



$write_file = < STDIN >;



print "\nThe outfile is $write_file";



print "\n\nWhat file is to be processed? ";



$file = < STDIN >;



while($file != "no"){



open(INFILE, $file);

open(OUTFILE, " > > $write_file");

print OUTFILE "\n";





while(< INFILE >){

	

	$aline = $_;

	($first, $rest)= split(' ', $aline);

	if($first eq $kill_char){

		chop ($first);

		$aline = $rest;

	}

	print OUTFILE "\n$aline";

	print "\n$aline";



}

print OUTFILE "\n";

print "\nIf you would like to add another file, type the file name at the prompt.\n";

print "\nOtherwise, type -no- to exit\n";

print "Add another file? ";

$file = < STDIN >;

}

close(OUTFILE);

close(INFILE);