This tutorial demonstrates how to use Webnucleo's Perl script for converting an ascii file of sparse matrix input data into an XML file appropriate for use in Webnucleo's Sparse Matrix Tool. It assumes you are in a Linux or Unix environment. If you are using a different operating system, please adjust the following instructions as appropriate.
Download Perl Code
To begin, download the Sparse Matrix Tool distribution available in the downloads page.
Unpack the distribution. For example, the following commands below should work.
gunzip sparse_matrix_x.tar.gz
tar xvf sparse_matrix_x.tar.gz
where x is the version number. For example, if you downloaded version 0.1, you would type
gunzip sparse_matrix_0.1.tar.gz
tar xvf sparse_matrix_0.1.tar.gz
The perl script, input_matrix_ascii_to_xml.pl, is located in the pl/ directory and the example input file, input_matrix.txt, is in the data_pub directory.
In input_matrix.txt, each element of matrix data is given as a space-delimited triplet of row, column, and value. Thus, the first column in the file contains all the rows, the second column all the columns, and the third column all the matrix element values.
Make the Perl script executable by typing:
chmod +x input_matrix_ascii_to_xml.pl
You are now ready to create the XML file.
Create the XML
You can now run the Perl script to convert the ascii data in input_matrix.txt into XML. To do this, type the following:
perl input_matrix_ascii_to_xml.pl ../data_pub/input_matrix.txt my_input_matrix.xml
The resulting XML file my_input_matrix.xml is ready to be uploaded to the Sparse Matrix Tool.
Challenges
Can you edit the input_matrix.txt file and run the Perl script to get a different XML file? Can you locate Perl on your system by typing:
which perl
and then editing the shebang (# !) line in the input_matrix_ascii_to_xml.pl appropriately so you can simply type
input_matrix_ascii_to_xml.pl input_matrix.txt my_input_matrix.xml
to convert ascii to XML? This will save you time if you plan to use the Perl script to convert ascii input matrix data to XML in the future.
