[Perl-beginners] Add Line break when first of a line changes

Do you already have Perl installed on your computer? If so, you can run it
as follows. Save the Perl script with whatever name you like - say,
new_liner. Then enter this into a terminal:

perl new_liner filename

Instead of 'filename', enter the name of the file you want to work on. The
two files should be in the same directory for this to work. Otherwise, you
will need to enter the full path of the file,

perl new_liner /path/to/filename

You should get output like this:

telemachus ~ $ perl new_liner feed
LAWN SEED 34.00 RED

LAWN SEED1 36.00 BLUE
LAWN SEED1 36.00 BLUE
LAWN SEED1 36.00 BLUE

LAWN SEED2 37.00 PINK

Assuming that the output comes out as you want it, you can save it to a
new
file with redirection:

perl new_liner feed_file > new_feed_file

In a nutshell, the script is taking a single filename as an argument,
opening the file and then checking line n for equality with n-1. It will
work with exactly the setup you describe, but it's not a very maintainable
situation (a single extra space or typo will bork the equality test,
there's
no way to deal with too many or two few filenames entered on the command
line, etc.).

As a more general rule, I would have to recommend *not* running scripts
you
don't understand that you find floating around on the interwebs.

Hope this helps, T


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