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Regular Expressions

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl





$word = "one last challenge";





if ( $word  =~ /^(\w+).*\s(\w+)$/ )

{

        print "$1";

        print "\n";

        print "$2";



}

The output shows that "$1" is with result one and "$2" is with result challenge. I am confused about how this pattern match expression works step by step. I request u guys` explanation. Thank u very much.

you don't need that much regular expression. just split on space

Code:

@s = split /\s+/ , $word;

then go through each element of @s to get your word.

I guess the OPs question isn't about splitting a string, but rather about how regular expressions work (in this case in Perl).

Let's take a look at the regex you have:

^
Start (Anchor) at the beginning of the string
(\w+)
Match one or more word character greedily, and save the match in a variable for further use.
.*
Match 0 or more of any character greedily, and discard the result.
\s
Match exactly 1 whitespace character
(\w+)
Again, match one or more word character and save the result.
$
Anchor the regex at the end of the string.

Color coded (not shown: the anchors at the beginning and the end; whitespaces shown as '·'):

Code:

^(\w+).*\s(\w+)$

one·last·challenge

try:

Code:

printf %s, (split /\s/, $word)[0]

Hi thank u for your reply. I juz get confused that why ".*\s" does not match "last " Thank you
note that there is a whitespace after double-quoted last

---------- Post updated at 09:18 AM ---------- Previous update was at 09:17 AM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by pludi (Post 302367330)

I guess the OPs question isn't about splitting a string, but rather about how regular expressions work (in this case in Perl).

Let's take a look at the regex you have:

^
Start (Anchor) at the beginning of the string
(\w+)
Match one or more word character greedily, and save the match in a variable for further use.
.*
Match 0 or more of any character greedily, and discard the result.
\s
Match exactly 1 whitespace character
(\w+)
Again, match one or more word character and save the result.
$
Anchor the regex at the end of the string.

Color coded (not shown: the anchors at the beginning and the end; whitespaces shown as '·'):

Code:

^(\w+).*\s(\w+)$

one·last·challenge

Hi thank u for your reply. I juz get confused that why ".*\s" does not match "last " Thank you
note that there is a whitespace after double-quoted last

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidHe (Post 302367459)

...
Hi thank u for your reply. I juz get confused that why ".*\s" does not match "last " Thank you
note that there is a whitespace after double-quoted last

It's pretty simple.

(A) Yes, ".*\s" does match " last ". (i.e. "last" with a space at both ends).
(B) It matched, but was not stored in a variable.

Why not ? Because it was not enclosed within brackets.

If you enclose it within brackets, then $2 will be assigned the value " last ". And, of course, "challenge" will go to $3.

The test is shown below:

Code:

$

$ cat -n tst.pl

     1  #!/usr/bin/perl

     2  $word = "one last challenge";

     3  if ( $word  =~ /^(\w+)(.*\s)(\w+)$/ )

     4  {

     5    print "==>|$1|<==";    # ==>|one|<==

     6    print "\n";

     7    print "==>|$2|<==";    # ==>| last |<==

     8    print "\n";

     9    print "==>|$3|<==";    # ==>|challenge|<==

    10  }

    11

$

$ perl tst.pl

==>|one|<==

==>| last |<==

==>|challenge|<==$

$

$

Note that the value of $2 is "last" with a single space at both ends.
Also note that $3 equals "challenge" without a newline at the end, due to which the $ prompt of the shell shows up right after those "==" characters.

HTH,
tyler_durden

Thank u for your reply.... But doesn`t anything match the pattern should be stored in $1,$2...$n???? U said it is matched but not stored in the $2 because it is not enclsoed within bracket....So what do u by that? I am new to Perl thank u ....for ur reply