Re: pattern matching a limited number of times

I try to keep code out of regexes, so i won't show you that example.

$foo =~ s/ab/cd/i for 1..5;
[download]

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Re: Re: pattern matching a limited number of times by bob49 (Initiate) on Sep 14, 2002 at 16:52 UTC
$foo =~ s/ab/cd/i for 1..5; The above seems to work very well. I'm not sure I see the advantages to the more complex phrasings below. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks Podmaster.	[reply]
Re3: pattern matching a limited number of times by blakem (Monsignor) on Sep 14, 2002 at 21:38 UTC
The main problem is that it doesn't deal with overlapping regexes very well, (i.e. your regex matches parts of your replacement string). Suppose you have the string: `"The wodchuck at the zo stod on the stoop";` [download] You realize that it will only make sense after replacing the first three 'o's with 'oo's `my $str = "The wodchuck at the zo stod on the stoop"; $str =~ s/o/oo/i for 1..3; print "$str\n";` [download] Oops, that yields: `The woooodchuck at the zo stod on the stoop` [download] The other solutions would have produced: `The woodchuck at the zoo stood on the stoop` [download] -Blake	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Re3: pattern matching a limited number of times by bob49 (Initiate) on Sep 15, 2002 at 01:56 UTC
Ok, I see Blakem... hmmmm.... I may be in the situation where the substitute will never be the same as the text substituted for..... Actually, I'm wrapping html around url's and their linked text.... I need to think about it though..... Thanks--you folks are really great.	[reply]


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