Re^3: Non-greedy regex behaves greedily


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Re^3: Non-greedy regex behaves greedily

by kovacsbv (Novice)

on Jul 27, 2008 at 23:36 UTC ( [id://700434]=note: print w/replies, xml )

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in reply to Re^2: Non-greedy regex behaves greedily
in thread Non-greedy regex behaves greedily

Ok, is there a nice detailed description of the engine that would fill in what causes a second run and what the "?" does exactly?

This behavior isn't very intuitive.

Also, is there another way to get the desired result other than the ugly hack I posted below?

Comment on Re^3: Non-greedy regex behaves greedily

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Re^4: Non-greedy regex behaves greedily
by ysth (Canon) on Jul 28, 2008 at 10:03 UTC

</a>

my $string = q!Back to STATES Menu</font></a></h3> <p align="center"><
+a href="index.htm"><img src="home2.gif" alt="Home" border="0" width="
+106" height="30"></a></p> </body> </html>!;
if ( $string =~ m!^.*(</a>.*?)$! ) {
   print "got $1\n";
}
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