slurping (matching \n)

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

Hey monks. Quick question. When in slurp mode, is there anyway to match a newline character other than "\n" ? At the moment I don't need to, but probably will at one point.

Example:

local $/ = undef;
my $names = <DATA>;

$names =~ /First: (\w+)\nSecond: (\w+)\nThird: (\w+)/;
my ( $first, $second, $third ) = ( $1, $2, $3 );
print "$first, $second, $third\n";

__DATA__
First: Bob
Second: Me
Third: You
[download]

The above works, but if I try to replace "\n" in the regex with something else which I would assume would work (namely * or .+) I of course get complaints. Yes, I know that newline characters are special, but if you can't recognize them with a wildcard, isn't slurp mode kinda pointless? The data I'm slurping now is very pretty and well layed out, but what if I was slurping a news article or something?

I'm sure I'm missing something important, so please -- feel free to verbally pound me now.

Comment on slurping (matching \n) Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: slurping (matching \n) by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Apr 18, 2005 at 01:15 UTC
Take a look at the /s modifier. It allows . to also match \n. Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: slurping (matching \n) by GaijinPunch (Pilgrim) on Apr 18, 2005 at 01:33 UTC
And that'd be what I was missing. :) Thanks	[reply]
Re: slurping (matching \n) by bart (Canon) on Apr 18, 2005 at 04:20 UTC
Also note that `/\s/` always matches a newline, too. You don't need /s for that.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: slurping (matching \n) by ysth (Canon) on Apr 18, 2005 at 06:08 UTC
As do \C, \D, \W, and \X.	[reply]
Re: slurping (matching \n) by maa (Pilgrim) on Apr 18, 2005 at 07:44 UTC
Bear in mind that you might get bitten in longer programs if you don't actually localise your `local` lexically. `{ local $/ = undef; my $names = <DATA>; } #$/ is back to our original record separator #(which you can use in the regexp if you want) e.g. if ( $names =~ m\|First: (\w+)$/Second: (\w+)$/Third: (\w+)\|s ) { .... }` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]


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