Hello.

I plan to skip the block content which include the start line of "MaterializeU4()" with the subroutin() read_block below. But failed.

# Read a constant definition block from a file handle. 
# void return when there is no data left in the file. 
# Otherwise return an array ref containing lines to in the block.  
sub read_block { 
    my $fh = shift; 

    my @lines; 
    my $block_started = 0; 

    while( my $line = <$fh> ) { 

    # how to correct my code below? I don't need the 2nd block content.
 $block_started++ if ( ($line =~ /^(status)/) && (index($line, "MaterializeU4") != 0) ) ;

 if( $block_started ) { 

     last if $line =~ /^\s*$/; 

     push @lines, $line; 
 }

    } 
    return \@lines if @lines;
    return; 
} 

Data as below:

__DATA__ 
status DynTest = <dynamic 100>
vid = 10002
name = "DynTest"
units   = ""

status VIDNAME9000 = <U4 MaterializeU4()>
vid = 9000
name = "VIDNAME9000"
units = "degC"

status DynTest = <U1 100>
vid = 100
name = "Hello"
units   = ""

Output:

  <StatusVariables>
    <SVID logicalName="DynTest" type="L" value="100" vid="10002" name="DynTest" units=""></SVID>
    <SVID logicalName="VIDNAME9000" type="L" value="MaterializeU4()" vid="9000" name="VIDNAME9000" units="degC"></SVID>
    <SVID logicalName="DynTest" type="L" value="100" vid="100" name="Hello" units=""></SVID>
  </StatusVariables>

[Updated] I print the value of index($line, "MaterializeU4"), it output 25. Then I updated the code as below

$block_started++ if ( ($line =~ /^(status)/) && (index($line, "MaterializeU4") != 25)

Now it works.

Any comments are welcome about my practice.

Thank you.