Question

I am writing a Perl script to automatically upload an Excel document into a MySQL database table using Automator in OSX. I have already written a functional query:

load data
local infile '/pathToFile/file.csv'
replace into table database.table
fields terminated by ','
enclosed by '"'
lines terminated by '\r'
ignore 1 lines;

The problem is my Perl script is not functioning because of a conflict with the \ character. I am kind of a Perl newbie, so I don’t know how to escape this character correctly to make the query work.

My Perl script:

#!/usr/bin/perl

# PERL MODULE
use Mysql;

# HTTP HEADER
print "Content-type: text/html \n\n";

# Set Variables
$host = "127.0.0.1";
$database = "database";
$tablename = "plugin_status";
$user = "user";
$pw = "password";

# PERL MySQL Connector
$connect = Mysql->connect($host, $database, $user, $pw);

# Run Query to update table
$myquery = "load data local infile '/pathToFile/file.csv' replace into table database.table fields terminated by ',' enclosed by '"' lines terminated by '\r' ignore 1 lines;";

# EXECUTE THE QUERY FUNCTION
$execute = $connect->query($myquery);

Here is the error generated:

String found where operator expected at perlfile.pl line 20, near ""load data local infile '/pathToFile/file.csv' replace into table database.table fields terminated by ',' enclosed by '"' lines terminated by '"
    (Missing operator before ' lines terminated by '?)
Backslash found where operator expected at perlfile.pl line 20, near "' lines terminated by '\"
    (Missing operator before \?)
syntax error at perlfile.pl line 20, near ""load data local infile '/pathToFile/file.csv' replace into table database.table fields terminated by ',' enclosed by '"' lines terminated by '"
Bad name after r' at perlfile.pl line 20.

Answer 1

if you want the resulting string to contain the two-byte-sequence \r you will need to escape the backslash when wrapping your string in-between ".

Also remember that your string cannot contain any free " if you use " to wrap the contents of your string, if this is the case you will need to escape every " that you want to be a part of your string.. see the below example.

my $data = "hello, I can write \"quotes\" inside my string";

---

Though there are much simpler alternatives so that you don’t have to worry about escaping anything¹.

$myquery = q{
  load data local infile '/pathToFile/file.csv'
  replace into table database.table
  fields
    terminated by ','
    enclosed by '"'
    lines terminated by '\r'
  ignore 1 lines;
};

^1. Unless you plan on using } in your string..

---

Read more about strings and escape sequences here:

• perlmonks.org – String Literals In Perl