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Asked: 2026-06-17T10:38:22+00:00

I am trying to autogenerate reports based from statistics acquired from our database. I

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enter image description hereI am trying to autogenerate reports based from statistics acquired from our database. I use perl to communicate with the database and store the interesting variables as scalars/arrays etc. I would then like to create a latex file before using pdflatex. However, I am having some issues trying to passenter image description here scalar values into the pdf. For example, please see my code below and the output 

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
#
# Description: Write a monthly report from the database using latex
#    
# Parameters:
#
# History: 
#
# CVS ID: $Date: 2012/03/01 16:13:03 $ $Revision: 1.1 $
########################################################################

#Add library
use lib "$ENV{HOME}/perllib";

#Call modules
use DBI;                     # Postgres communication functions
use File::Temp qw/tempfile/;
use File::Copy;
use Cwd;

my $date_start = '01/12/12';
my $date_stop  = '31/12/12';


%hash=("01"=>"Jan","02"=>"Feb","03"=>"Mar","04"=>"Apr","05"=>"May","06"=>"Jun","07"=>"Jul","08"=>"Aug","09"=>"Sep","10"=>"Oct","11"=>"Nov","12"=>"Dec");
$date_start=~/([0-9]{2})\/([0-9]{2})\/([0-9]{2}).*/;
my $date_string = "$hash{$2}$3";
my $report_name = "$date_string"."_monthly_report.pdf";



#Pragmas

use warnings;
no warnings "uninitialized";  # Don't warn about unitialized variables#
use strict 'vars';          # Force all variables to have defined scope

my $repdir = "/home/nm/Desktop/";
my ($fh, $filename) = tempfile( SUFFIX => '.tex', DIR => $repdir);

# LaTeX Header information
print $fh <<'END';
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{underscore}
\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage[margin=0.5in]{geometry}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{array}

\newenvironment{nstabbing}
  {\setlength{\topsep}{0pt}%
   \setlength{\partopsep}{0pt}%
   \tabbing}
  {\endtabbing}

\begin{document}


\begin{center}
\LARGE \bf MONTHLY SUMMARY
\end{center}


END

my $blank = " ";
# Body of LaTeX document
print $fh <<END;
This report details clinical and imaging statistics from $date_start to $date_stop

END
print $fh <<'END';
This report details clinical and imaging statistics from $date_start to $date_stop


\large \bf Clinical Statistics

\normalsize \rm 

\begin{table}[h]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{cccc} 
\hline
Task & AR & DB & GM \\
Cannulation & 1 & 2 & 3 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

END

# Closing of LaTeX document
print $fh <<'END';
\end{document}
END

# Run LaTeX compiler to generate PDF
system('pdflatex -output-directory ' . $repdir . ' ' . $filename);
my $file_prefix = substr($filename, 0, -4);

#remove aux, log and tex files
my $auxfile = $file_prefix . ".aux";
my $logfile = $file_prefix . ".log";
my $pdffile = $file_prefix . ".pdf";

system('rm ' . $auxfile . ' ' .  $logfile . ' ' . $filename);
$filename="$repdir$report_name";
move($pdffile,$filename);

system('acroread ' . $filename);

Why does 

print $fh <<END;
This report details clinical and imaging statistics from $date_start to $date_stop
END

give the correct output, while the following does not?

print $fh <<'END';
This report details clinical and imaging statistics from $date_start to $date_stop
END

I tried using the former to create the table on display but I could not get it in a nice format, e.g. it would create an extra column and place cannulation beside GM. Also when using the former I had to place an extra / before latex keywords, eg //bf rather than /bf whereas in the latter (‘END’) I don’t need to.

Ideally I’d prefer to use ‘END’ as my tables and latex formatting work as expected. However, I am unable to pass scalar and array values. How can I manage this?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The single quotes around 'END' mean that your here document is treated like a single-quoted string: no variables are interpolated within it.

    The default is to treat as a double quoted string, which is why your first example works. You can also use double quotes to explicitly specify that you want it to be like a double quoted string: <<"END"; (This is like the default behavior, but perhaps clearer).

    An inevitable consequence of using an interpolating (double quoted) string is that you have to escape things like backslashes–backslashes have a special meaning within this kind of string. You really have to pick one or the other: a string that interpolates variables and requires escaping, or a string that does not interpolate and does not require escaping.

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