CGI Question

[vbbit]

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.

[vbbit]

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

Thanks.

[kfcSmitty]

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

[anotherVBnewbie]

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.

[vbbit]

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.