CGI Question

Hi guys, I'm pretty new to CGI programming. I have a question here, I'm working on a poll script, but could not understand what does this line mean?

foreach my $key (keys %results) {
my $percent = ($results{$key} / $total_votes ) * 100;
$percents{$key} = sprintf("%2d %%", $percent);
}

The main part is that sprintf("%2d %%", $percent), what does sprintf mean? And what are those %2d %%?

Thanks. :wave:

No one ever replied :( Could anyone out there helps me please.

Thanks.

I have never used CGI before, but Id imagine sprintf ("%2d%%", $percent)

Would display on the screen $percent (the variable) in the format %.%%

% would be the digit before the decimal, 2d would be the decimal, and the 2 %'s after would limit it to decimal places


Sorry I don't know CGI, but I figured it would be better atleast getting some response :)

HTH

Ok..I just got here but I'll try to help :)

Regarding the "foreach my $key (keys %results)":
"%results" is a keyed hash array and the code is looping (foreach) through each keyed hash by key name. if you don't specify keys ("(keys %result)") the foreach loop would enumerate by key values instead of key names. The "my $key" is simply specifying what variable you want the enmuerated value to be assigned to.

When using hashes you access values by the key name, thus the "$results{$key}" portion of the next line (the percent sign is used to reference the entire hash while you use the dollar sign when wishing to reference a specific key). The remainder of that line is the apparent math functions.

After what I've covered thus far I imagine that it's obvious to you that with "$percents{$key}" he is assigning a value to another keyed hash and retaining the same key name as is used in the original hash.

sprintf is used to format a string and kfcSmitty is, I believe, correct in his interpetation of that.

Also, if you want or need to investigate other perl functions this page has proven very helpfull to me in the past.

kfcSmitty, No, you have been a great help. At least, you gave me an idea of decimals. I was so crazy that could not think of that. %2d means round it to 2 decimals in CGI language, and %% means percent format :)

Also, big thanks to anotherVBnewbie. Man, that site is awesome. I'm glad to know it, so it clarifies the sprintf function clearly.