"2+2=4" =~ /2\+2/; # matches, \+ is treated like an ordinary +
"The interval is [0,1)." =~ /[0,1)./ # is a syntax error!
"The interval is [0,1)." =~ /\[0,1\)\./ # matches
- "/usr/bin/perl" =~ /\/usr\/local\/bin\/perl/; # matches
+ "/usr/bin/perl" =~ /\/usr\/bin\/perl/; # matches
In the last regexp, the forward slash C<'/'> is also backslashed,
because it is used to delimit the regexp. This can lead to LTS
(leaning toothpick syndrome), however, and it is often more readable
to change delimiters.
+ "/usr/bin/perl" =~ m!/usr/bin/perl!; # easier to read
The backslash character C<'\'> is a metacharacter itself and needs to
be backslashed:
used just as ordinary variables:
# extract hours, minutes, seconds
- $time =~ /(\d\d):(\d\d):(\d\d)/; # match hh:mm:ss format
- $hours = $1;
- $minutes = $2;
- $seconds = $3;
+ if ($time =~ /(\d\d):(\d\d):(\d\d)/) { # match hh:mm:ss format
+ $hours = $1;
+ $minutes = $2;
+ $seconds = $3;
+ }
Now, we know that in scalar context,
S<C<$time =~ /(\d\d):(\d\d):(\d\d)/> > returns a true or false
The combination of C<//g> and C<\G> allows us to process the string a
bit at a time and use arbitrary Perl logic to decide what to do next.
-Currently, the C<\G> anchor only works at the beginning of a pattern.
+Currently, the C<\G> anchor is only fully supported when used to anchor
+to the start of the pattern.
C<\G> is also invaluable in processing fixed length records with
regexps. Suppose we have a snippet of coding region DNA, encoded as
The last regexp matches, but is dangerous because the string
I<character> position is no longer synchronized to the string I<byte>
position. This generates the warning 'Malformed UTF-8
-character'. C<\C> is best used for matching the binary data in strings
+character'. The C<\C> is best used for matching the binary data in strings
with binary data intermixed with Unicode characters.
Let us now discuss the rest of the character classes. Just as with
$x =~ /foo(?!baz)/; # matches, 'baz' doesn't follow 'foo'
$x =~ /(?<!\s)foo/; # matches, there is no \s before 'foo'
+The C<\C> is unsupported in lookbehind, because the already
+treacherous definition of C<\C> would become even more so
+when going backwards.
+
=head2 Using independent subexpressions to prevent backtracking
The last few extended patterns in this tutorial are experimental as of