# File:	fileSkipLines.pl			
# Title: Read a text file and print it lines. Ignore some 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;
}
# count only the lines with names
# and skip empty lines
# that is skip line with comments, first char is #
$count = 0;
while ($line = <IN>) {				     #reads line by line the text file until End Of File (EOF)
    if ($line =~ m/^\s*$/) {next};       # skip empty line ^\s*$  first char(^) and last char($)
    if ($line =~ m/^#/ )   {next};       # skip lines with first char(^) as #
	# ($line =~ m/^\s*#/)   match lines that start with any number of blanks followed by #
	# ($line =~ m/^\s*>/)   match lines that start with any number of blanks followed by >
	print "$line";
    $count++;
}
print "\n # lines with names is $count.";
close IN;
exit;