Re^3: How can I access the number of repititions in a regex?

in reply to Re^2: How can I access the number of repititions in a regex?
in thread How can I access the number of repititions in a regex?

I understand that the empty () imposes list context on the right...

correct

...making the match return the number of matches.

Not quite. The match returns a list of matches. A list assignment in scalar context returns the number of elements in the list, regardless of the number of those elements that actually get assigned to anything (in this case, zero). So the "5" doesn't propagate. It's the use of the assignment in scalar context that creates the "5".

Comment on Re^3: How can I access the number of repititions in a regex?

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Re^4: How can I access the number of repititions in a regex? by amarquis (Curate) on Mar 12, 2008 at 03:19 UTC
Ah, thank you. Sorry, I don't know why I was confusing the two, it doesn't even make sense the way I was thinking about it.	[reply]

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