Grep & Regex Question

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

I'm trying to do something pretty simple, but can't get it to work. I have an array. I want to ask the user if they want to remove an element. If they do, it will delete the element from the array and rebuild the array.

So for instance, if I have the following:

@array = qw(a b c);

And the user enters "b", the array would become:

@array = qw(a c);

Grep doesn't seem too fond of feeding it variables though. Anyways, here's my code:

@priority = qw(RB1 RB2 FL1 FL2 QB1 QB2 TE1 WR1 WR2 DST);
$continue = 'Y';
while($continue == 'Y')
{
@mypri = grep(!/ $position /, @priority);
print "Random position iterations in order of priority: \n";
foreach (@mypri)
{
print "$_\n";
}
print "Do you wish to lock another player position? Enter 'Y' to add a
+nother player or press Enter to continue";
$continue = <>;
}
[download]

I love it when a program comes together - jdhannibal

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Re: Grep & Regex Question by choroba (Cardinal) on Dec 01, 2013 at 08:37 UTC
`==` compares numbers, use `eq` to compare strings: `while ($continue eq 'Y')` [download] Numerically, 'Y' is zero. Moreover, see chomp to fix `$continue = <>;` [download] لսႽ† ᥲᥒ⚪⟊Ⴙᘓᖇ Ꮅᘓᖇ⎱ Ⴙᥲ𝇋ƙᘓᖇ	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Grep & Regex Question by atcroft (Abbot) on Dec 01, 2013 at 08:36 UTC
The problem is the spaces you have around $position in the grep, as illustrated by the following test code: `my @priority = qw/RB1 RB2 FL1 FL2 QB1 QB2 TE1 WR1 WR2 DST/; my $position = q{QB2}; # Print original list print join q{ }, @priority; # Process using original regex, with spaces @priority = grep {!/ $position / } @priority; print join q{ }, @priority; # Process using regex with spaces removed @priority = grep {!/$position/ } @priority; print join q{ }, @priority;` [download] Read more... (335 Bytes) An alternative might be the /x regex modifier, which tells the regex parser to ignore most non-backslashed, non-character class whitespace. Hope that helps.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Grep & Regex Question by jdlev (Scribe) on Dec 01, 2013 at 09:41 UTC
Excellent. Got it to work! I'm just curious about one thing. In order to use the user input prompt to assign the variable, I had to change it to: chomp($position = <>); Why do you have to add chomp in order to get the user input to work normally? It looks like it adds a new line after a user input's data for some reason if you just do $position = <>; I love it when a program comes together - jdhannibal	[reply]
Re^3: Grep & Regex Question by choroba (Cardinal) on Dec 01, 2013 at 09:54 UTC
It does not add it, the user does: he/she ends his/her input with a newline. لսႽ† ᥲᥒ⚪⟊Ⴙᘓᖇ Ꮅᘓᖇ⎱ Ⴙᥲ𝇋ƙᘓᖇ	[reply]
Re: Grep & Regex Question by ysth (Canon) on Dec 01, 2013 at 09:24 UTC
Perhaps you mean something like: `my $position = 'FL1'; my @priority = qw(RB1 RB2 FL1 FL2 QB1 QB2 TE1 WR1 WR2 DST); @priority = grep $_ ne $position, @priority;` [download] -- A math joke: r = \| \|csc(θ)\|+\|sec(θ)\| \|-\| \|csc(θ)\|-\|sec(θ)\| \|	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Grep & Regex Question by Corion (Patriarch) on Dec 01, 2013 at 08:27 UTC
What is the following regular expression supposed to match? `/ $position /` [download] Where do you set `$position`? Are there blanks in front and back of your target strings? What steps have you taken to debug this problem?	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Grep & Regex Question by Kenosis (Priest) on Dec 01, 2013 at 22:53 UTC
Although ysth has a fix for the following issue, be careful using `!/$position/` when `grep`ping to remove unwanted elements, as unintended results may happen: `use strict; use warnings; my @priority = qw(RB1 RB2 FL1 FL11 FL2 QB1 QB2 TE1 WR1 WR2 DST); my $position = 'FL1'; print "$_\n" for grep !/$position/, @priority;` [download] Output: `RB1 RB2 FL2 QB1 QB2 TE1 WR1 WR2 DST` [download] Note that elements 'FL1' and 'FL11' were removed. To avoid this, use either ysth's `$_ ne $position` or `!/^$position$/` (which forces a complete--not just partial--match) when `grep`ping in your script.	[reply] [d/l] [select]