http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=1201119


in reply to $1[

This falls into the general class of "I'm using a regex, but my expression is starting to look like noise." The fastest solution in this case is use the x modifier since you don't have any whitespace in your expression:
s/ \) ([^()]+) \( / ] $1 [ /xg;
That's your original expression with extra whitespace.

I personally don't see the value in reducing your character count by 2 by avoiding the backslashes in the first place, but this type of process is always susceptible to Leaning_toothpick_syndrome. If I'm doing something like this, with potential nesting and the like, I always build a tree using tokens. My experience has generally shown that in these scenarios the fast solution is never actually fast.


#11929 First ask yourself `How would I do this without a computer?' Then have the computer do it the same way.