c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $s = 'kkkaaabc';
for my $rx (
'k?a?', 'k*a?', 'k?a+', 'k+a+', 'k?a*', 'k*a*', 'a*',
) {
print qq{'$s'};
;;
$s =~ m{ ($rx) }xms;
;;
if (not defined $1) {
print 'no match';
next;
}
;;
print ' ', ' ' x $-[1], '^' x ($+[1] - $-[1]),
qq{ /$rx/ matched '$1' at offset $-[1]};
}
"
'kkkaaabc'
^ /k?a?/ matched 'k' at offset 0
'kkkaaabc'
^^^^ /k*a?/ matched 'kkka' at offset 0
'kkkaaabc'
^^^^ /k?a+/ matched 'kaaa' at offset 2
'kkkaaabc'
^^^^^^ /k+a+/ matched 'kkkaaa' at offset 0
'kkkaaabc'
^ /k?a*/ matched 'k' at offset 0
'kkkaaabc'
^^^^^^ /k*a*/ matched 'kkkaaa' at offset 0
'kkkaaabc'
/a*/ matched '' at offset 0
Note in particular the /a*/ regex which I added at the end. This matches the empty string at offset 0 even though a perfectly good 'aaa' sequence is available further on. Engrave "Leftmost Longest" on a prayer wheel and keep it ever spinning in your mind.
Regexes are the most counterintuitive thing I've encountered in the realm of programming.
Updates:
- The initialization of capture variables (e.g., $1) to undef on regex recompilation is apparently only available from Perl version 5.10 onward. The code
my $match = $s =~ m{ ($rx) }xms;
if (not $match) {
print 'no match';
next;
}
is more portable among different Perl versions.
- Also check out davido's Perl Regular Expression Tester
Give a man a fish: <%-{-{-{-<
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