regex syntax and idomatic Perl

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

I have input from a "df -k /home" that looks like this:

filesystem          kbytes   used     avail    capacity  mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4 12209400 5496486  6712914  46%       /home
[download]

And a function that parses it for the capacity (creatively named no less):

sub parse_capacity {
   my ($df_output) = @_;
   my $capacity;
   if ($df_output =~ m[(\d+)%\s+/home$]) {
      $capacity = $1;
   }
   else {
      $capacity = 'Match Error';
   }
   return $capacity;
}
[download]

This works. I should be done right? Noooo, I'm looking for a more idiomatic way to rewrite the "if regex" for purely aesthetic reasons.

I tried:

($df_output =~ m[(\d+)%\s+/home$]) ? $capacity = $1 : $capacity = 'Mat
+ch Error';
[download]

Which returns 'Match Error' every time.

Why does the ternary statement not work?
What are the some of the more Perlish ways to rephrase that if statment?

Thanks,
cbeckley

Comment on regex syntax and idomatic Perl Select or Download Code

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Re: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by huck (Prior) on Mar 21, 2017 at 02:43 UTC
precedence http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html#Conditional-Operator `$x % 2 ? $x += 10 : $x += 2` [download] Really means this: `(($x % 2) ? ($x += 10) : $x) += 2` [download] `$capacity =($df_output =~ m[(\d+)%\s+/home$]) ? $1 : 'Match Error';` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by cbeckley (Curate) on Mar 21, 2017 at 13:33 UTC
Ah, ok. I see why `$capacity =($df_output =~ m[(\d+)%\s+/home$]) ? $1 : 'Match Error';` [download] is correct. Thank you for the link, otherwise my next question was going to why the previous version didn't produce an error. However, the fact that this operator can evaluate to an lvalue now prompts the next question, where else does this occur? Does any expression that evaluates to a object or variable work the same way? Thanks, cbeckley	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by AnomalousMonk (Archbishop) on Mar 22, 2017 at 21:50 UTC
... the fact that this operator can evaluate to an lvalue now prompts the next question, where else does this occur? Does any expression that evaluates to a object or variable work the same way? Interesting question. All the more so since I have only a tenuous grasp of the syntactic/semantic issues involved. Obviously, something like `c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "my $t = 1; my $f = ''; ;; ($t \|\| $f) = 'foo'; print qq{t '$t' f '$f'}; " Can't modify logical or (\|\|) in scalar assignment ... Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.` [download] doesn't work: `($t \|\| $f)` can't be an lvalue. The only other situation I can think of in which this sort of hocus-pocus occurs is with Lvalue subroutines (see perlsub). I'd be interested to learn if there are any others. (Of course, now that I've asked the question, folks will probably respond with a million examples! :) BTW: the `?:` ternary operator in C/C++ has the same lvalue selection property. Give a man a fish: `<%-{-{-{-<`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by haukex (Archbishop) on Mar 22, 2017 at 22:04 UTC
Re^5: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by cbeckley (Curate) on Mar 22, 2017 at 23:33 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re^4: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by cbeckley (Curate) on Mar 23, 2017 at 02:26 UTC
Re: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by AnomalousMonk (Archbishop) on Mar 21, 2017 at 08:53 UTC
The precedence problem has been covered. As for idiomaticity (?), how about: `c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le "for ('filesystem kbytes used avail capacity mounte +d on', '/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4 12209400 5496486 6712914 46% /home' +, ) { printf qq{'%s' -> '%s' \n}, $_, parse_capacity($_); } ;; sub parse_capacity { my ($df_output) = @_; return $df_output =~ m[(\d+)%\s+/home$] ? $1 : 'Match Error'; } " 'filesystem kbytes used avail capacity mounted on' +-> 'Match Error' '/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4 12209400 5496486 6712914 46% /home' -> '4 +6'` [download] Update: Actually, if the structure of a data record really is that simple, it's not that much more effort to go ahead and parse the whole thing: c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le "use Data::Dump qw(dd); ;; for ('filesystem kbytes used avail capacity mounte +d on', '/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4 12209400 5496486 6712914 46% /home' +, ) { dd $_, parse_all($_); } ;; sub parse_all { my ($df_output) = @_; ;; my $match = my ($fsys, $kb, $used, $avail, $cap, $mtd) = $df_output =~ m{ \A (.+) \s+ (\d+) \s+ (\d+) \s+ (\d+) \s+ (\d+)% \s+ (.+) \z }xms; ;; return { error => 'Match Error' } unless $match; ;; return { fsys => $fsys, kb => $kb, used => $used, avail => $avail, cap => $cap, mounted_on => $mtd, }; } " ( "filesystem kbytes used avail capacity mounted on +", { error => "Match Error" }, ) ( "/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4 12209400 5496486 6712914 46% /home", { avail => 6712914, cap => 46, fsys => "/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4", kb => 12209400, mounted_on => "/home", used => 5496486, }, ) [download] Give a man a fish: `<%-{-{-{-<`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by cbeckley (Curate) on Mar 21, 2017 at 14:02 UTC
Ah, that's very cool: `my $match = my ($fsys, $kb, $used, $avail, $cap, $mtd) = $df_output =~ m{\A (.+) \s+ (\d+) \s+ (\d+) \s+ (\d+) \s+ (\d+) % \s+ +(.+) \z}xms;` [download] I didn't know match could be used in a list context like that. Chaining the scalar assignment is a nice touch. Thank you. Thanks, cbeckley	[reply] [d/l]
Re: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by tybalt89 (Monsignor) on Mar 21, 2017 at 02:46 UTC
`$capacity = $df_output =~ m[(\d+)%\s+/home$] ? $1 : 'Match Error';` [download] see perlop for precedence problem you had.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by NetWallah (Canon) on Mar 21, 2017 at 02:50 UTC
`if (my ($capacity,$loc) = $df_output =~m/(?:\S+\s+){4}(\d+)%\s+(.+)$/) +{ #say "cap=$capacity of $loc"; return $capacity; } return "Match Error";` [download] ...it is unhealthy to remain near things that are in the process of blowing up. man page for WARP, by Larry Wall	[reply] [d/l]
Re: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by Monk::Thomas (Friar) on Mar 21, 2017 at 13:49 UTC
What are the some of the more Perlish ways to rephrase that if statment? Here's an alternative solution without a regexp/match condition. It's not intended to be 'more' perlish but 'differently' perlish. TMTOWTDI and all that. #!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; # in my own code I would use Readonly to define these constants # -- http://search.cpan.org/~sanko/Readonly-2.05/lib/Readonly.pm my $idx_usage = 4; my $idx_mount = 5; my @input = ( '/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4 12209400 5496486 6712914 46% /home', ); printf "cap = %s\n", parse_capacity(@input); exit 0; # ----- sub parse_capacity { # use $_[0] or shift @_ instead of my ($scalar) = @array; my $df_output = $_[0]; my @fields = split /\s+/, $df_output; if ($fields[$idx_mount] eq '/home') { my $use = $fields[$idx_usage]; chop $use; # remove '%' return $use; } else { return 'Match Error'; } } [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by Anonymous Monk on Mar 21, 2017 at 06:43 UTC
Hi Should $capacity = $1 be $capacity == $1? J.C.	[reply]
Re^2: regex syntax and idomatic Perl by Monk::Thomas (Friar) on Mar 21, 2017 at 13:56 UTC
`if ($df_output =~ m[(\d+)%\s+/home$]) { $capacity = $1; }` [download] No. It's really an assignment, not a comparison.	[reply] [d/l]