johnfl68 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello

I had this figured out at one time, then changed the way I did things and didn't really need it, but now I need it again for a few instances.

Unfortunately I can not find the final version that I actually used.

I am trying to trim down a string from NWS weather alerts. Here is an example:

...FLASH FREEZE AND AREAS OF BLACK ICE... Temperatures will continue t
+o fall in the wake of a strong cold front as brisk and gusty west to 
+northwest winds usher in much colder air. As temperatures drop into t
+he 20s lingering standing water on roads and other untreated surfaces
+ will freeze up creating hazardous driving and walking conditions. In
+ addition,

[download]

All I need is what is between the first "..." and the second "..." and nothing else.

...FLASH FREEZE AND AREAS OF BLACK ICE...

Sometimes they use the 3 dot pattern in more than one place, I only really want the first set.

What I could find that was the last entry in my notes is this:

$summary =~ s/\Q...\E/.../g;

But that is not working correctly. I have tried a few other ways, but I am not having any luck.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as always. Thank you!

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Regex string trimming help
by choroba (Cardinal) on Dec 19, 2016 at 00:21 UTC
    You can split the string on three dots and select the second part: 
    my $result = (split /\Q...\E/, $summary)[1];

    [download]

    ($q=q:Sq=~/;[c](.)(.)/;chr(-||-|5+lengthSq)`"S|oS2"`map{chr |+ord
}map{substrSq`S_+|`|}3E|-|`7**2-3:)=~y+S|`+$1,++print+eval$q,q,a,

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: Regex string trimming help
by tybalt89 (Monsignor) on Dec 19, 2016 at 00:25 UTC 
    #!/usr/bin/perl -l

# http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=1178018

use strict;
use warnings;

while(<DATA>)
  {
  print /\.{3}(.*?)\.{3}/;
  }
  
__DATA__
...FLASH FREEZE AND AREAS OF BLACK ICE... Temperatures will continue t
+o fall in the wake of a strong cold front as brisk and gusty west to 
+northwest winds usher in much colder air. As temperatures drop into t
+he 20s lingering standing water on roads and other untreated surfaces
+ will freeze up creating hazardous driving and walking conditions. In
+ addition,

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]

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