Using iterated variables with regex - regex

Question

The point of the overall script is to:
step 1) open a single column file and read off first entry.
step 2) open a second file containing lots of rows and columns, read off EACH line one at a time, and find anything in that line that matches the first entry from the first file.
step3) if a match is found, then "do something constructive", and if not, go to the first file and take the second entry and repeat step 2 and step 3, and so on...
here is the script:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict; #use warnings;
unless(#ARGV) {
print "\usage: $0 filename\n\n"; # $0 name of the program being executed
exit;
}
my $list = $ARGV[0];
chomp( $list );
unless (open(LIST, "<$list")) {
print "\n I can't open your list of genes!!! \n";
exit;
}
my( #list ) = (<LIST>);
close LIST;
open (CHR1, "<acembly_chr_sorted_by_exon_count.txt") or die;
my(#spreadsheet) = (<CHR1>);
close CHR1;
for (my $i = 0; $i < scalar #list; $i++ ) {
print "$i in list is $list[$i]\n";
for (my $j = 1; $j < scalar #spreadsheet; $j++ ) {
#print "$spreadsheet[$j]\n";
if ( $spreadsheet[$j] ) {
print "will $list[$i] match with $spreadsheet[$j]?\n";
}
else { print "no match\n" };
} #for
} #for
I plan to use a regex in the line if ( $spreadsheet[$j] ) { but am having a problem at this step as it is now. On the first interation, the line print "will $list[$i] match with $spreadsheet[$j]?\n"; prints $list[$i] OK but does not print $spreadsheet[$j]. This line will print both variables correctly on the second and following iterations. I do not see why?

Answer 1

At first glance nothing looks overtly incorrect. As mentioned in the comments the $j = 1 looks questionable but perhaps you are skipping the first row on purpose.
Here is a more perlish starting point that is tested. If it does not work then you have something going on with your input files.
Note the extended trailing whitespace removal. Sometimes if you open a WINDOWS file on a UNIX machine and use chomp, you can have embedded \r in your text that causes weird things to happen to printed output.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict; #use warnings;
unless(#ARGV) {
print "\usage: $0 filename\n\n"; # $0 name of the program being executed
exit;
}
my $list = shift;
unless (open(LIST, "<$list")) {
print "\n I can't open your list of genes!!! \n";
exit;
}
open(CHR1, "<acembly_chr_sorted_by_exon_count.txt") or die;
my #spreadsheet = map { s/\s+$//; $_ } <CHR1>;
close CHR1;
# s/\s+$//; is like chomp but trims all trailing whitespace even
# WINDOWS files opened on a UNIX system.
for my $item (<LIST>) {
$item =~ s/\s+$//; # trim all trailing whitespace
print "==> processing '$item'\n";
for my $row (#spreadsheet) {
if ($row =~ /\Q$item\E/) { # see perlre for \Q \E
print "match '$row'\n";
}
else {
print "no match '$row'\n";
}
}
}
close LIST;