perltutorial
root
<code>
/Lisa|Bart/ #matches either Lisa or Bart by using the | (or) operator
/Lisa\sBart/ #matches Lisa then a whitespace character and then Bart
/\w{5}/ #matches 5 alphanumeric/word characters in a row
/sub\s+\w*{/ #matches the word sub then one or more spaces and then
#0 or more alphanumeric characters followed by a {
/\d{3}-\d{4} #matches a phone number of the form 555-1234
#3 numbers followed by a - followed by 4 numbers
</code>
A great way to test just what a given pattern matches is the
program below:
<p><tt>
#!/usr/bin/perl<br>
while(<>){<br>
print if m!</tt><I>your pattern here</I><tt>!;<br>
}<br>
</tt></p>
All you have to do is drop your test pattern
into place. Then run the program and type a line of text
in at a time. If the pattern matches it will echo the line of text to the screen.
When you have played with it enough simply type Ctrl-C.
<p>
You should now take some time to learn about [split and join]
</p>