Re^2: Regular Expression - delimiter/spaces problem

in reply to Re: Regular Expression - delimiter/spaces problem
in thread Regular Expression - delimiter/spaces problem

Thanks a lot for your solution. I tried and it worked fine. I have questions regarding the dash_or_digit reg.

my $dash_or_digits = qr{ (?: - | \d+ ) }msx

Why are using (?:)?

I never used this expression before and checked http://perldoc.perl.org/perlreref.html but it is not clear why use it. I tried it without and it worked also:

my $dash_or_digits = qr{ - | \d+ }msx

Can you please let me know the reason? Thank you.

regards deMichi

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Re^3: Regular Expression - delimiter/spaces problem by shmem (Chancellor) on Feb 15, 2014 at 14:59 UTC
Why are using (?:)? The "?:" reduces the parens effect to grouping. That means, the content of the parens will not be captured to populate a $< digit> variable ($1, $2, $3, ...). It is good practice to state exactly what is meant; and if you want to just group alternatives, then (?:) is the fitting expression. perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'	[reply]

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