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

I'm a webmaster that receives lots of documents in MacroSlop Word, then "Save as HTML" and am trying to write a script that guts the HTML of all the useless stuff that Word sticks in like "$#9;". It's really kicking my @$$ and as much I'd just like an answer, I'd benefit more from a good regex tutorial that would show me what I'm doing wrong. Anyone know of any?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: regex tutorial
by neshura (Chaplain) on Mar 17, 2000 at 00:04 UTC
Re: regex tutorial
by chromatic (Archbishop) on Mar 17, 2000 at 00:21 UTC
    Don't forget that perldoc perlre is as close as your command prompt. (ActiveState installs similar HTML documentation under the Start Menu somewhere.)
Re: regex tutorial
by KM (Priest) on Aug 24, 2000 at 21:11 UTC
    MJD's article How Regexes Work is a look into the inside of the regex engine, and how it works. It is a great read to see what is happening inside when it tries to make matches. I suggest it be on your reading list.

    Cheers,
    KM

Re: regex tutorial
by btrott (Parson) on Mar 17, 2000 at 03:08 UTC
    Also take a look at perlman:perlfaq6, which deals completely with regular expressions. It's not a tutorial per se, but it may answer some of your questions.

    You might also want to purchase Jeffrey Friedl's Mastering Regular Expressions.

Re: regex tutorial
by Anonymous Monk on Mar 17, 2000 at 04:06 UTC
    Also look at Tom Christensen's "demoronizer" script. This is exactly what it's for. Though not a tutorial per se, I'm sure you'll find the examples enlightening.
Re: regex tutorial
by Anonymous Monk on Mar 17, 2000 at 19:23 UTC
    If you want _lots_ of detail, go for the owls book A bit more than a tutorial, but well worth investing in if you're writing a lot of text-processing perl
RE: regex tutorial
by Anonymous Monk on Mar 17, 2000 at 06:33 UTC
    http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/demoroniser/