tr returns the number of translations it has done - so you can use code like:

to get the number of double quotes in $text.

I can't help wondering, however, why you're trying to reinvent HTML::Parser. What does that module not do that you need?

Perl Training in the UK <http://www.iterative-software.com>

I reinvent the wheel (that's true :) ), this way I learn how to make one.
Perhaps is a stupid idea, but I'm learning a lot about parsers and its problems and it's interesting.
Anyway, the real reason is that I'm working in Windows with Savant Web Server, my version doesn't have any HTML libs.
I like to run my application in any Web Server, and the parser I'm doing is a very simple one (not a complete HTML Parser). So I can permit this "re-invention".

I knew the question was simple, but I really didn't know how to solve it. And you are great, Perl Monks.

Thanks very much!!
--edu

On a trivial note about counting occurances of letters you can do it all of these ways:



my $txt = "1,2,3,4,5,6";
my $n1 = scalar(split(/,/,$txt))-1;
my $n2 = scalar(@{[ split(/,/,$txt) ]})-1;
my $n3 = scalar($#{[ split(/,/,$txt) ]})-1;
my $n4 = (y/,/,/);
my $n5 = (m/,/g);
[download]


But the last is by far the fastest because it doesn't do any string modification. It's also the best for golf.

my @a=qw(random brilliant braindead); print $a[rand(@a)];

This however, seems to be the least of your troubles. Who cares what lang HTML::Parser is implemented in? Are you writing a parser? Here's some code (i think you have a quesiton beyond "how to count the number of times a character appears in a string", but I dunno what it is):

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use HTML::TokeParser;

my $string = qq,

clear text <tag var1=".." var2="..>.." > clear text

,;

printf "\" appears %s times in this string\n", ($string)=~ y/"/"/;

my $p = HTML::TokeParser->new(\$string);

die $! unless $p;

while (my $token = $p->get_token)
{
    # ["S", $tag, %$attr, @$attrseq, $origtext]
    if( ($token->[0] eq 'S') ) # is it a starting link tag
    {
        my ($typeotag, $tag, $attr, $attrseq, $origtext)=@$token;
        print "this start tag is ($tag)\n";
        print "its attribues are (in original sequence):\n";
        printf "(%s)=(%s)\n",$_,$attr->{$_} for(@$attrseq);
        print "\n\n-- a start tag no more --\n\n";
    }
    else
    {
        printf "something else  (%s)\n\t\t(%s)\n",
               @{$token};
    }

}

__END__
F:\dev\HTML_Tokeparser_Tutorial>perl liar.pl
" appears 4 times in this string
something else  (T)
                (

clear text )
this start tag is (tag)
its attribues are (in original sequence):
(var1)=(..)
(var2)=(..>..)


-- a start tag no more --

something else  (T)
                ( clear text)
something else  (T)
                (

)

F:\dev\HTML_Tokeparser_Tutorial>
[download]

 
___crazyinsomniac_______________________________________
Disclaimer: Don't blame. It came from inside the void
perl -e "$q=$_;map({chr unpack qq;H*;,$_}split(q;;,q*H*));print;$q/$q;"

will match (if I'm not missing something) properly formed HTML/XML tags (as well as other similar things, which is okay because such other similar things shouldn't be found in proper HTML/XML).

To return the matched tag in $1, use (or put the parens inside the <> as I do below since that part of the tag is constant): m#(<(?:[^"'>]+|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')*>)# Note that this doesn't handle HTML comments. To properly handle both HTML comments and HTML tags using regexes, you have to march along the text like a real parser:

while(  $html !~ m#\G$#gc  ) {
    if(  $html =~ m#\G([^&<]+)#gc  ) {
        # $1 is plain text
    } elsif(  $html =~ m#\G<!--(.*?)-->#gc  ) {
        # $1 is a comment
        # I think HTML comments are defined by the standard
        # to actually be more complex than that, but the
        # practical definition appears to match the above.
    } elsif(  $html =~ m#\G<((?:[^"'>]+|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')*)>#gc  ) {
        # $1 is the inside of a tag
    } elsif(  $html =~ m#\G&(\w+);#gc  ) {
        # $1 is the name of an entity
    } elsif(  $html =~ m!\G&#(\w+);!gc  ) {
        # $1 is the number of an entity
    } else {
        # We have hit invalid HTML.
        # You can try to be lenient here if you like:
        if(  $html =~ m#\G([&<])#gc  ) {
            # Treat like a &amp; or &lt; if you like
        } else {
            die "Impossible??";
        }
    }
}
[download]

Updated, but not much.

<img src="my\"stuff">
<img src="" width="" height="" >
<img bareword>
<img src="duh>">
[download]

  my $txt = "Some long html document";
  my $tag = "img"
  my $matches = ( 
    $txt =~ s%
       (<\Q$tag\E\s+        # begin with tag and space
         (?:
          \w+                   # key/bareword
            (?:
             =(["']?)           # begin with quote or not 
             (?:|.*?[^\\])      # some value that doesn't end with \
             \2         # close quote maybe
            )?          # possible bareword
          (?:\s+|>)     # something trailing (force match)
         )+             # multiple groups
        >?)             # trailing > (handles <$tag word=val >)
       %&tag_handler($1)%gexis );
[download]