To: boss@wherever
Subject:Accounts
Dear Boss,
[[[
my($message="");
my($File)=substr($file,0,rindex($file,":"));
$File=$File.":accounts";
open(IN,$File) or die($!);
my(@xsc)=;close(IN);
my($xx,%xoose);
my($xlank)="              ";
for($xx=0;$xx<=$#xsc;$xx++){
  my(@xmp)=split('\t',$xsc[$xx]);
  chomp(@xmp);
  $xoose{$xmp[0]}=substr($xmp[0].$xlank,0,10).substr($xmp[1].$xlank,0,16).substr($xmp[5].$xlank,6);
  }
foreach $xx (sort(keys(%xoose))){
  my($xamount)=substr($xoose{$xx},26);
  if($xamount>999) {$message.=$xoose{$xx};}
  }
my(@dt)=localtime();$dt[4]++;$dt[5]+=1900;
save_as("balances".$dt[4]."/".$dt[3]."/".$dt[5]);
if($message ne "") {
  return("Here is a list of the accounts with big balances.\n".$message."\n");
  }
else {return("All accounts have balances of less than \$1,000.\n");}
]]]

Me



****************************

This is a pmail message to solve the following problem. Every morning the accounting department emails you a tab separated file containing data on the accounts for your department. Your boss wants you to email him a list of all the accounts with a balance of more than $999.

You save the data in a file called 'accounts' in the same directory as this message. Then you just pmail the message and the information goes off to your boss and you can get on with other stuff.

You might however like a record that you actually did this. The function 'save_as' does this for you by saving a copy of the actual message and adding the date/time stamp to it rather than to this script. If you are really paranoid you might want to say

my($text)=join("",@xsc);
save_as("balances".$dt[4]."/".$dt[3]."/".$dt[5],$text);

Here are the steps

• my($message="");
  • Initialize a variable. Need 'my' because we are running under 'strict'.
• my($File)=substr($file,0,rindex($file,":"));
  • Put the path to the folder with this pmail message into $File. The colons are Mac path delineators - under UNIX they would be /'s
• $File=$File.":accounts");
  • $File now has the path name to the true 'accounts' file.
• open(IN,$File) or die($!);
  • Open the file or die!
• my(@xsc)=;close(IN);
  • Dump the contents of the file into the array @xsc and then close the file.
• my($xx,%xoose);
  • Declare some variables.
• my($xlank)=" ";
  • Set a variable to tab our email message.
• for($xx=0;$xx<=$#xsc;$xx++){
  • Loop through the lines in the accounts file.
• my(@xmp)=split('\t',$xsc[$xx]);
  • Split the line into fields.
• chomp(@xmp);
  • Kill any newlines which happen to be hanging around.
• $xoose{$xmp[0]}=substr($xmp[0].$xlank,0,10).substr($xmp[1].$xlank,0,16).substr($xmp[5].$xlank,6);
  • Assume column 0 is an account# and each account has a unique account#. Assume column 1 has the name of the account. Assume column 5 is the balance in the account.
• }
  • Close the for loop.
• foreach $xx (sort(keys(%xoose))){
  • Run through the accounts, sorted by account#.
• my($xamount)=substr($xoose{$xx},26);
  • Extract the amount of the account.
• if($xamount>999) {$message.=$xoose{$xx};}
  • If it's big, add it to the list.
• }
  • Close the foreach loop
• my(@dt)=localtime();$dt[4]++;$dt[5]+=1900;
  • Get data for a date stamp.
• save_as("balances-".$dt[4]."/".$dt[3]."/".$dt[5]);
  • Save the computed message as "balances-mm/dd/yyyy".
• if($message ne "") {return("Here is a list of the accounts with big balances.\n".$message."\n");
  • If we got any big accounts, clean up and return the list.
• else {return("All accounts have balances of less than \$1,000.\n");}
  • Otherwise, assure the boss that all is well.