How can I replace empty elements in an array with "OTHER"?

Question

My list (@degree) is built from a SQL command. The NVL command in the SQL isn't working, neither are tests such as:

if (@degree[$i] == "")
if (@degree[$i] == " ")
if (@degree[$i] == '')
if (@degree[$i] == -1)
if (@degree[$i] == 0)
if (@degree[$i] == ())
if (@degree[$i] == undef)

$i is a counter variable in a for loop. Basically it goes through and grabs unique degrees from a table and ends up creating ("AFA", "AS", "AAS", "", "BS"). The list is not always this long, and the empty element is not always in that position 3.

Can anyone help?

I want to either test during the for loop, or after the loop completes for where this empty element is and then replace it with the word, "OTHER".

Thanks for anything -Ken

Paul Tomblin · Accepted Answer · 2008-12-01 20:01:39Z

8

First of all, the ith element in an array is $degree[$i], not @degree[$i]. Second, "==" is for numerical comparisons - use "eq" for lexical comparisons. Third of all, try if (defined($degree[$i]))

answered Dec 1, 2008 at 20:01

Paul Tomblin

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CheeseConQueso Over a year ago

thanks... ya i know its $degree[$i], i was just in a rush haha and the eq worked perfectly... I'm just learning perl on my own and i couldnt find this answer anywhere so thank you very much

Yanick · Accepted Answer · 2008-12-02 16:59:49Z

6

Everything that Paul said. And, if you need an example:

my @degree = ('AFA', 'AS', 'AAS', '', 'BS');

$_ ||= 'OTHER' for @degree;

print join ' ' => @degree;  # prints 'AFA AS AAS OTHER BS'

answered Dec 2, 2008 at 16:59

Yanick

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Comments

derobert · Accepted Answer · 2008-12-02 16:52:27Z

1

If its actually a null in the database, try COALESCE

SELECT COALESCE(column, 'no value') AS column FROM whatever ...

That's the SQL-standard way to do it.

answered Dec 2, 2008 at 16:52

derobert

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