# File:	fileDelBlanks.pl			
# Title: Read a text file and delete empty lines. 
# Author:	Mihaela Malita
# use symbols:   first char(^) and last char($) 
# Here is the file names.txt, has comment lines(lines that start with #) and empty lines
#			# File with names
#
#
#           Mary 
#			John
#			Evan
my $filename;
my $line;
print "Name of the file (names.txt)? ";
$filename = <STDIN>;	chop($filename); 	#read from keyboard
unless (open(IN,"$filename")) {				#check if the file exists
	print "No file with such a name!";
	exit;
}
$line = <IN> ;				     #reads line by line the text file until End Of File (EOF)
$line =~ s/^\s/g) ;       # skip empty line ^\s*$  first char(^) and last char($)
print $line;
close IN;
exit;