I am shocked and amazed to hear such blasphemy.

The title of the node is "substr on $_ by gisrob" yet all I see is variations of $new = s/\d+.\d/replacement/g;.

Talk about a shared mentality, didn't anyone notice the word substr?? No, it's not just gibberish, it is an actual perl function.

Observe:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
while(<DATA>)
{
    my $dot_ix = index $_ ,'.';

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "the string before trimming",
           $_;

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "dot+",
           substr $_, $dot_ix;

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "dot-2",
           substr($_, $dot_ix - 2);

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "trimmed fat",
           substr($_, $dot_ix - 2, $dot_ix -1, '');
           # $dot_ix -1 since it's the num of chars, not index

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "the string after trimming",
           $_;

}

__END__
1996.40637
1996.41064
1996.41199
1996.41467
1996.41882
[download]

And the output:

F:\dev>perl sub.pl
              the string before trimming: 1996.40637

                                    dot+: .40637

                                   dot-2: 96.40637

                             trimmed fat: 96.
               the string after trimming: 1940637

              the string before trimming: 1996.41064

                                    dot+: .41064

                                   dot-2: 96.41064

                             trimmed fat: 96.
               the string after trimming: 1941064

              the string before trimming: 1996.41199

                                    dot+: .41199

                                   dot-2: 96.41199

                             trimmed fat: 96.
               the string after trimming: 1941199

              the string before trimming: 1996.41467

                                    dot+: .41467

                                   dot-2: 96.41467

                             trimmed fat: 96.
               the string after trimming: 1941467

              the string before trimming: 1996.41882
                                    dot+: .41882
                                   dot-2: 96.41882
                             trimmed fat: 96.
               the string after trimming: 1941882

UPDATE: OOps, I think funny ;D

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
while(<DATA>)
{
    my $dot_ix = index $_ ,'.';

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "the string before trimming",
           $_;

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "dot+",
           substr $_, $dot_ix;

# oops, i think funny
#    printf "%40s: %s\n",
#           "dot-2",
#           substr($_, $dot_ix - 2);

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "string - 2",
           substr($_, 2);


#    printf "%40s: %s\n",
#           "trimmed fat",
#           substr($_, $dot_ix - 2, $dot_ix -1, '');
#           # $dot_ix -1 since it's the num of chars, not index

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "trimmed fat",
           substr($_, $dot_ix, 1, '');

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "trimmed fat",
           substr($_, 0, 2, '');

    printf "%40s: %s\n",
           "the string after trimming",
           $_;

}

__END__
1996.40637
1996.41064
1996.41199
1996.41467
1996.41882
[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;"