Space and the /x modifier

Django has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: Space and the /x modifier by spurperl (Priest) on Aug 29, 2002 at 08:11 UTC
From perldoc perlre: `x Extend your pattern's legibility by permitting whitespace and comments. ... ... The /x modifier itself needs a little more explanation. It tells the regular expression parser to ignore whitespace that is not backslashed or within a character class. You can use this modifier to break up your regular expression into (slightly) more readable parts.` [download] It can be inferred from here that /x applies only to the first part of s///, but it's not really conclusive. Perhaps this can be clarified with a brief note.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Space and the /x modifier by sauoq (Abbot) on Aug 29, 2002 at 07:52 UTC
/x doesn't discard space in the replacement half of the substitution. It only ignores it in the pattern. -sauoq "My two cents aren't worth a dime.";	[reply]
Re: Space and the /x modifier by Zaxo (Archbishop) on Aug 29, 2002 at 07:54 UTC
The /x switch only applies to the regex: `$ perl -e'$_="abracadabra"; s/ a / /xg; print' br c d br $` [download] After Compline, Zaxo	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Space and the /x modifier by PodMaster (Abbot) on Aug 29, 2002 at 11:21 UTC
others have said you ought to read perlre, and you should do that but you can use \x20, whera as hex(20) is 32, and use of \x20 in a regex will match a space (same if you print "\x20") `perl -e " print 1 if q{ } =~ /\x20/ "` [download] `____________________________________________________` ** The Third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Space and the /x modifier by Django (Pilgrim) on Aug 29, 2002 at 11:54 UTC
That's neat! Not necessary for an ordinary space as I can see from the answers above, but quite useful for some exotic chars. Thanx a lot! ^~Django "Why don't we ever challenge the spherical earth theory?"	[reply]


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