Help with this simple regex

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

I have data that looks like this:

<ID="user_one" event="open(2)">
<ID="user_one" event="system booted">
<ID="user_one" event="init(1m)">
[download]

I need a regex that will return whatever is in the quotes of the event="open(2)", but I need the matching to stop if it hits a parenthesis and not stop if it hits a space. Example return of the regex would be:

open
system booted
init
[download]

I don't need the stuff in the parenthesis. I have come up with this:

match =~ /event="(.+?)"/
[download]

I don't know how to get it to stop at the parenthesis but not stop if it hits a space.

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Re: Help with this simple regex by toolic (Bishop) on May 28, 2013 at 19:41 UTC
This gives you the output you're looking for: `use warnings; use strict; while (my $match = <DATA>) { $match =~ /event="([^(]+).*"/; print "$1\n"; } __DATA__ <ID="user_one" event="open(2)"> <ID="user_one" event="system booted"> <ID="user_one" event="init(1m)">` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Help with this simple regex by Jim (Curate) on May 28, 2013 at 20:01 UTC
I modified your regular expression pattern slightly to avoid matching beyond the closing quote. `use warnings; use strict; while (my $line = <DATA>) { while ($line =~ m/event="([^("]+)[^"]*"/gi) { print "$1\n"; } } __DATA__ <ID="user_one" event="open(2)"> <ID="user_one" event="system booted"> <ID="user_one" event="system booted"><ID="user_one" EVENT="init(1m)"> <ID="user_one" event="init(1m)"> <ID="" event="">` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Help with this simple regex by davido (Cardinal) on May 28, 2013 at 19:46 UTC
`my $re = qr/ \b event \s* = \s* " # Match word boundary, "event", # optional space, "=", optional # space, and a double-quote. ( [^"(]+ ) # Capture any quantity of anything # that is not a double-quote or an # open paren. ["(] # Anchor to another double-quote or # an opening paren. /x; # Extended pattern (literal whitespace # and comments aren't significant). if( $match =~ $re ) { print "Captured: [[$1]]]]"; }` [download] Dave	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Help with this simple regex by Anonymous Monk on May 28, 2013 at 21:24 UTC
see perlfaq6#How can I hope to use regular expressions without creating illegible and unmaintainable code?	[reply]
Re^2: Help with this simple regex by JockoHelios (Scribe) on May 29, 2013 at 01:14 UTC
Ummm...I thought illegible and unmaintainable code was the whole point of coding in RegEx. Obfuscation, the aura of inscrutable genius, and job security :) Dyslexics Untie !!!	[reply]