grep() command?

what is this command in Perl?
what does it do?

i was just wondering what it did, as I am using it in a CGI, but am not sure exactly what it does.

any info on this at all would be appreciated. if you need more info, please let me know.


CujoRbd

Well, its not that easy to explain grep() or map() functions in Perl. The Perl Archive has a really cool article that deals with grep at:

http://tlc.perlarchive.com/0008/01.shtml

Basically, the grep() functions uses regular expressions to make a list out of another list. This is a somewhat blunt explanation, so you should really go and read the article.

HTH.

thanks! that answered alot of my questions.

to explain further what i am doing, i am basically adapting an old script of mine, but don't remember why I had put in the 'grep()' command. with that page you gave me, i figured out that i must've put it in to count the amount of users i have under a specific list.

though this answers my question, it now brings up another one.

i am trying to basically get a printout of every user, along with some info within their specified user file.

the grep command i had there was this:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">code:</font><HR><pre>
@members = grep(/.cgi/, @members);[/code]

which had just sprung off of this:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">code:</font><HR><pre>
opendir (MEMBERDIR, "$MembersPath");
@members = readdir(MEMBERDIR);
closedir (MEMBERDIR);[/code]

so, basically i've opened up a certain directory and counted the amount of files that end in "cgi" (or the amount of users that are there, to be more specific).

what i was hoping to do for this was to add a "foreach" statement and basically print out each user's info. but as the grep counts files and doesn't really distinguish between them, i'm not really sure what to do.

what can i do instead then? is there a certain function/command that i should use? or what?

please help me here, as I'd really like to finally get this script complete.


THANKS!!!


Cujo

^^^