Please have a look at this module Set::IntSpan.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Set::IntSpan;


my $set1 = new Set::IntSpan '31-52';
my $set2 = new Set::IntSpan '27-50';
my $u_set =  intersect $set1 $set2;
my @set = sets $u_set;

print @set;

__END__
output:
31-50
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Update: code + typo

hth,
PooLpi

The math is simple if you have min and max from List::Util:

use strict;
use warnings;
use List::Util qw(min max);

my $range1 = "31-52";
my $range2 = "27-50";
print max(min($2,$4)-max($1,$3)+1,0),"\n" if "$range1,$range2"=~/(\d+)
+-(\d+),(\d+)-(\d+)/;
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Of course, each max or min could be replaced by the ternary operator ?:.

Or maybe get some inspiration from Set::IntSpan

Thanks guys, will look for your suggestions! Cheers!

Here’s a solution using Set::Scalar:

#! perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Set::Scalar;

my $range1  = Set::Scalar->new(5 .. 25);
my $range2  = Set::Scalar->new(7 .. 31);
my $common  = $range1->intersection($range2);
my @members = $common->members();

print join(', ', sort { $a <=> $b } @members), "\n";
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Output:

22:25 >perl 764_SoPW.pl
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 2
+5

22:25 >
[download]

Hope that helps,

Your reaction to McA is unacceptable !

Maybe better try searching for older discussion in the archive you're by far not the first one with this question.

No more feeding...

Yes, there is. You're welcome.

Regards
McA

LOL

Given the many, many really good bits of advice I have seen you give, McA, I really have to ask -- are you feeling particularly feisty this morning?  :-)

It's just that I don't recall you having a solid trend of picking on people for asking the wrong question. Or maybe I just never noticed it before?

I can think of numerous ways of calculating these types of things, but I wonder how you define exactly the length between some overlapping numerical ranges. This is not clear to me. Do you mean the number of integers belonging to the overlap? Or something else?

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use List::Util qw/ min max /;

my $hash = overlap('31-52', '27-50');
use Data::Dumper; print Dumper $hash;

sub overlap {
    my ($r1_lo, $r1_hi, $r2_lo, $r2_hi) = map {split /-/} @_;
    my $min = max($r1_lo, $r2_lo);
    my $max = min($r1_hi, $r2_hi);
    
    return if $min > $max;
    return {min => $min, max => $max};
}
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$VAR1 = {
          'min' => 31,
          'max' => 50
        };
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$a = '31-52 27-50'; @a = sort split /\s|-/, $a;
print $a[3] - $a[0]," or ",$a[2] - $a[1],"\n";
[download]

Two ranges A and B overlap if low(A) <= high(B) AND high(A) >= low(B) ... hope I got that right, but it’s something like that.   Yes, there should be a CPAN module as-noted which does this simple task and probably others that will be of interest to you.

Then, again IIRC, the distance ought to be something like Max(Low(A), High(B)) - Min(Low(B), High(A)) ... not so sure about that one, it’s been a while.   Anyway, I do remember that you are testing the opposite-end numbers in each pair in some way.

Except that the OP did not speak about distance but about "the length between some overlapping numerical ranges", this phrasing does not really make sense to me. The length between overlapping ranges, if anything, is 0. This is why I kindly asked for clarification. Or, perhaps, it is a deficiency in my command of the English language. But the OP answered some later posts by other monks, but did not see it fit to answer mine.