More Ways to Test Files - Perl

In our last tutorial we left off on the topic of creating files and manipulating the data therein. In this article we will discuss how to append to a file and how to write to a file. If there is time, we will also discuss working with file checks.

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By: James Payne

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November 14, 2007

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There are also ways to test if a file is read, writable, or executable:

$my_file="superhero.txt";

if (-r $my_file)

{

#whatever you want to occur if the file is readable

}

$my_file="superhero.txt";

if (-w $my_file)

{

#whatever you want to occur if the file is writable

}

$my_file="superhero.txt";

if (-x $my_file)

{

#whatever you want to occur if the file is executable

}

And lastly, if you want to test more than one you can use the OR (||), and AND (&&) (ow my brains!) operators.

$my_file="superhero.txt";

if ( (-e $my_file) && (-w $my_file) )

{

#whatever you want to occur if the file exists and is writable

}

Here is a table for a quick reference:

File Checks	What it Does
-e	Checks to see if the file exists
-z	Checks to see if a file size is zero
-s	Checks to see if a file size is not zero
-r	Checks to see if a file is readable
-w	Checks to see if a file is writable
-x	Checks to see if a file is executable
-T	Checks to see if a file is a text file
-B	Checks to see if a file is a binary file
&&, \|\|	And and OR Operators used to check if one criteria or another is true, or if this criteria AND that criteria are true

All right folks. That's it for this section covering Files. In the next series we will cover how to work with Directories and possibly forms, time permitting.

So swing by often.

Till then...