http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=544599


in reply to Re^2: Passing variables into regular expressions
in thread Passing variables into regular expressions

Interesting.

The docs indicate that the s flag causes the input string to be treated as if it's a single line. The m flag, on the other hand, causes the string to be treated as if it's multi-line.

It seems that .*? can't cross the newline character when using the m flag:

# doesn't match my ($span_m) = $str =~ /(\d\d.*?\d\d)/m; # matches my ($span_m) = $str =~ /(\d\d.*?\n.*?\d\d)/m; # so does my ($span_m) = $str =~ /(\d\d\w+\s\w+\d\d/m;
Treating the \n as whitespace (or explicitly naming it in the regex) seems to solve the problem. Any ideas why that'd be the case?