Data Munging with Perl (Paperback)

by David Cross (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
" . . . well written, informative, thought provoking . . . will be as relevant five years from now as it is today. . . . buy [one]." -- Dr. Dobb’s Journal

"A very good resource for programmers who want to learn more about data parsing, data filters, and data conversion..." -- ACM Computing Reviews

"I found the sample problems and the author's solutions to be very well done. I . . . liked the design tips..." -- Pikes Peak Perl Mongers

"Well worth the price, and a good starting point for more advanced forays." -- Use.Perl.com

the chapters are concise, the coverage is comprehensive, and the examples are plentiful and relevant. -- Web Techniques Magazine

Product Description
The Perl language is well suited for use with "data munging" tasks: those that involve transforming and massaging data. While Perl is commonly used for such tasks, there has been no book focused on the topic of munging. This book covers the basic paradigms of programming and discusses the many techniques that are specific to Perl. It also examines standard data formats such as text, binary, HTML, and XML before giving tips on creating and parsing new structured data formats. Source code downloads and technical support from the authors are available on publisher's Web site.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications; illustrated edition edition (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930110006
• ISBN-13: 978-1930110007
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #156,573 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An apt description of Perl, February 12, 2001

By	Adam Sroka "[e-mail]" (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews

I was perusing the shelves at my local bookstore, when this title jumped out and grabbed me. Not only is it a unique and interesting title (Something uncommon for computer books), but it is also the most succinct description of my job, and of Perl for that matter, that I have ever seen.

I am an avid reader, and in the interest of furthering my career most of my reading is work related. Normally, it takes me more than a month to read a book, though I am in the process of reading a half dozen or so at a time. I finished this book in less than a week. I couldn't put it down.

The thing that is so great about this book, is that it delves into the heart of what Perl does best (And was designed to do). Nine out of ten (more like ninety-nine out of one-hundred) jobs in Perl involve taking some sort of raw data, munging it, and spitting it out to some other process. This book is about doing that, many of the different forms that that can take, and some of the many techniques that perl (and a pragmatic approach) make available to do that.

While I hesitate to say that this is the best Perl book I've ever read (It's got some good competition), I can say that there is no application of Perl that I am aware of where this book and the principles it explores would not be of value. In my opinion this book belongs on every serious Perl programmer's bookshelf right next to the "Camel" and the "Cookbook".

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stop this man before he reveals everything!, February 26, 2001

By	david l nicol (kansas city, missouri) - See all my reviews

Dave Cross's new book, published by Manning, which means it has a figure from an old guide to native dress of the peoples of the world on the cover instead of some kind of animal, tells everything you need to know about using Perl for what it is most suited for: manipulating data.

Starting with the source/filter/sink theory of data manipulation and demonstrating every tip and technique with clear and efficient examples, without severe digressions into mythological whimsy, this book would make an excellent second text on the Perl language, or a suitable first for someone who is good with programming languages.

Many of the techniques contained in it are of "trade secret" quality; they are the sort of write-the-number-of-gallons-of-paint-it-took-to-paint- the-room-on-the-back-of-the-light-switch-cover practices that until now had to be learned or happened upon by every programmer, alone, or by example, rather than in the context of a coherent theory.

The theoretical side, in which "munging" is defined and most software activity is described in terms of it, is clear enough that the book might be an interesting read for management, to answer the question "Just what is it about Perl that makes those who use it regularly so confoundedly fanatical?"

If you've ever been mystified by a Perl wizard who found it easier to export the records from the fancy GUI database into a comma delimited text file and then sort and display the data with mysterious little programs rather than use the GUI's native report generator, and want to find out why, or if you would like to become such a person yourself, or if you already are such a person but would like to get better at it, this book is for you.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for data-processing *beginners*, July 6, 2001

By	Goldin Evgeny (Tel-Aviv, Israel) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's a guide. David takes you through the different "data munging" tasks ( record oriented data ? binary data ? fixed-width data ? XML ? ) and shows you his proper ways of dealing with them ( or, at least, thinking about them ). It's not an encyclopedia of "data munging", the book is 300 pages and many of them ( too many, may be ) are detailed descriptions of useful CPAN modules ( which I wasn't reading as careful as the rest of the book, since POD was always enough ), so it covers only a usual data processing tasks letting you to go deeper by yourself for more advanced topics. After you'll finish it much less "data sources" will scare you - the solutions and references are inside.

As I said, it may be good for data-processing beginners, but Perl experts will hardly find lot's of new information in it.

P.S. I trust him and therefore follow his advices in every script I start to think of ( especially the one about "UNIX filter model" ).