s/z/tz/

[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / pod / perlvar.pod

diff --git a/pod/perlvar.pod b/pod/perlvar.pod
index eae87c7..e66654d 100644 (file)
--- a/pod/perlvar.pod
+++ b/pod/perlvar.pod
@@ -180,15 +180,33 @@ performance penalty on all regular expression matches.  See L<BUGS>.
 
 =item $+
 
-The last bracket matched by the last search pattern.  This is useful if
-you don't know which one of a set of alternative patterns matched.  For
-example:
+The text matched by the last bracket of the last successful search pattern.
+This is useful if you don't know which one of a set of alternative patterns
+matched. For example:
 
     /Version: (.*)|Revision: (.*)/ && ($rev = $+);
 
 (Mnemonic: be positive and forward looking.)
 This variable is read-only and dynamically scoped to the current BLOCK.
 
+=item $^N
+
+The text matched by the used group most-recently closed (i.e. the group
+with the rightmost closing parenthesis) of the last successful search
+pattern.  (Mnemonic: the (possibly) Nested parenthesis that most
+recently closed.)
+
+This is primarly used inside C<(?{...})> blocks for examining text
+recently matched. For example, to effectively capture text to a variable
+(in addition to C<$1>, C<$2>, etc.), replace C<(...)> with
+
+     (?:(...)(?{ $var = $^N }))
+
+By setting and then using C<$var> in this way relieves you from having to
+worry about exactly which numbered set of parentheses they are.
+
+This variable is dynamically scoped to the current BLOCK.
+
 =item @LAST_MATCH_END
 
 =item @+
@@ -454,10 +472,8 @@ This array holds the offsets of the beginnings of the last
 successful submatches in the currently active dynamic scope.
 C<$-[0]> is the offset into the string of the beginning of the
 entire match.  The I<n>th element of this array holds the offset
-of the I<n>th submatch, so C<$+[1]> is the offset where $1
-begins, C<$+[2]> the offset where $2 begins, and so on.
-You can use C<$#-> to determine how many subgroups were in the
-last successful match.  Compare with the C<@+> variable.
+of the I<n>th submatch, so C<$-[1]> is the offset where $1
+begins, C<$-[2]> the offset where $2 begins, and so on.
 
 After a match against some variable $var:
 
@@ -556,7 +572,7 @@ change the exit status of your program.  For example:
 
 Under VMS, the pragma C<use vmsish 'status'> makes C<$?> reflect the
 actual VMS exit status, instead of the default emulation of POSIX
-status.
+status; see L<perlvms/$?> for details.
 
 Also see L<Error Indicators>.