You code mentions JSON, but your data isn't JSON. If it is JSON and you've just transcribed it badly, then please use a JSON library.
But if your data isn't JSON, then something like this will do the trick.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $match = shift or die "I need a string to match\n";
while (<DATA>) {
# If this is the start of a block we want to remove...
if (/^\s*$match\s+{/) {
# Set $braces to 1 (or 0 if the block closes on this line)
my $braces = /}/ ? 0 : 1;
# While $braces is non-zero
while ($braces) {
# Read the next line of the file
$_ = <DATA>;
# Increment or decrement $braces as appropriate
$braces-- if /}/;
$braces++ if /{/;
}
} else {
# Otherwise, just print the line
print;
}
}
__DATA__
string 1 {
abc { session 1 }
fairPrice {
ID LU0432618274456
Source 4
service xyz
}
}
string 2 {
abc { session 23 }
fairPrice {
ID LU036524565456171
Source 4
service tzu
}
}
Currently, this just prints the output to the console. And I use the DATA filehandle for easier testing. Switching to use real filehandles is left as an exercise for the reader :-)
Update: I decided that I didn't like all the incrementing and decrementing of $braces using regex matches. So here's another (improved?) version that uses y/.../.../ to count the occurrences of opening and closing braces in the line. It's possible that this version might be slightly less readable (the syntax highlighter certainly thinks so).
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $match = shift or die "I need a string to match\n";
while (<DATA>) {
if (/^\s*$match\s+{/) {
my $braces = y/{// - y/}//;
while ($braces) {
$_ = <DATA>;
$braces -= y/}//;
$braces += y/{//;
}
} else {
print;
}
}
__DATA__
string 1 {
abc { session 1 }
fairPrice {
ID LU0432618274456
Source 4
service xyz
}
}
string 2 {
abc { session 23 }
fairPrice {
ID LU036524565456171
Source 4
service tzu
}
}
Update 2: Ok, I originally said that dealing with real filehandles would be left as an exercise for the reader. But here's a version that does that.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $match = shift or die "I need a string to match\n";
open my $fh, '+<', 'data' or die $!;
# Read all the data from the file
my @data = <$fh>;
# Empty the file
seek $fh, 0, 0;
truncate $fh, 0;
my $x = 0;
while ($x <= $#data) {
$_ = $data[$x++];
if (/^\s*$match\s+{/) {
my $braces = y/{// - y/}//;
while ($braces) {
$_ = $data[$x++];
$braces -= y/}//;
$braces += y/{//;
}
} else {
print $fh $_;
}
}
Currently, I've hard-coded the filename to be data. I hope it's obvious how to fix that.
