Greedy flip flop operator?

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

Hi Perl Monks,

I have a question about flip flop operator ( /pattern/ .. /pattern/ ) and hope for your instructions/thoughts.

Suppose I have a text file like this :

start text

+ 123

+ 456

+ 789

some other text not starting with +

I would like to extract from "start text" to the one line before "some other text not starting with +". That is to say, in this example, to extract the first four lines.

I wrote a script like this -

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict; use warnings;

my $file = "file_name_to_the_txt";
open(my $fh,'<',$file) or die "Warnings: $!\n";
while (<$fh>) {
  print if (/^start/ .. /^\+/);
}
close ($fh);
[download]

===

but it only generates the first two lines. Is there a way to have a greedy flip flop operator? thanks in advance.

Comment on Greedy flip flop operator? Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Greedy flip flop operator? by choroba (Cardinal) on Apr 26, 2018 at 08:44 UTC
Using three dots and negating the condition works, but you have to omit the last line, which is easy if you capture the value returned by the flipflop and check it for E: `#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; while (<DATA>) { if (my $flip = /^start/ ... /^[^+]/) { print unless $flip =~ /E/; } } __DATA__ start text + 123 + 456 + 789 some other text not starting with +` [download] ($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: Greedy flip flop operator? by hippo (Archbishop) on Apr 26, 2018 at 08:09 UTC
Is there a way to have a greedy flip flop operator? Not that I am aware of. However there are lots of ways to achieve the same effect. Here's one: `use strict; use warnings; use Test::More tests => 1; my $want = <<EOT; start text + 123 + 456 + 789 EOT my $out; while (<DATA>) { last unless (/^(start\|\+)/); $out .= $_ } is ($out, $want); __DATA__ start text + 123 + 456 + 789 some other text not starting with +` [download] If your actual data is different then you might have to try another approach but I think this should be fairly efficient.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Greedy flip flop operator? by Discipulus (Canon) on Apr 26, 2018 at 07:14 UTC
Hello chengchl, You need this: `print if (/^start/ .. /^\[^\+]/); # EDIT: /^\[^\+]/ is wrong!` Infact your version says: print between `start` and (the first) `+` included , while mine prints between `start` and a not `+` included. ie it will print also the first new line without a leading `+` The flip flop operator is already greedy: it is true between two patterns, included. In you case perhaps it's better something else: have a switch that signal if `start` was found and if so just print out strings starting with a `+` sign. PS see also my library links L* There are no rules, there are no thumbs.. Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Greedy flip flop operator? by LanX (Saint) on Apr 26, 2018 at 07:25 UTC
> `/^\[^\+]/` Shouldn't it rather be `/^[^+]/` ? I'd also test for following `\w+` to avoid whitespace confusion. Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Greedy flip flop operator? by Discipulus (Canon) on Apr 26, 2018 at 07:36 UTC
`/^[^+]/` will end at the first empty line (if they really are there as shown).. anyway you are right: I must not post before coffe L* There are no rules, there are no thumbs.. Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Greedy flip flop operator? by LanX (Saint) on Apr 26, 2018 at 07:51 UTC
Re^3: Greedy flip flop operator? by chengchl (Acolyte) on Apr 26, 2018 at 07:56 UTC
Hi Rolf, It seems it will only print the first line... When i execute the code as you instructed.	[reply]
Re^4: Greedy flip flop operator? by LanX (Saint) on Apr 26, 2018 at 08:57 UTC
Re^2: Greedy flip flop operator? by chengchl (Acolyte) on Apr 26, 2018 at 08:06 UTC
Thanks L. I think we should use ... instead of .. for the flip flop operator. Thanks again!	[reply]
Re: Greedy flip flop operator? by poj (Abbot) on Apr 26, 2018 at 07:19 UTC
some other text not starting with + `print if (/^start/ .. /^[^+]/ && !/^start/);` poj	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Greedy flip flop operator? by chengchl (Acolyte) on Apr 26, 2018 at 07:59 UTC
Hi Poj, Thanks but this will print the whole text... I think...	[reply]
Re: Greedy flip flop operator? by tybalt89 (Monsignor) on Apr 26, 2018 at 20:50 UTC
`#!/usr/bin/perl # http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=1213573 use strict; use warnings; #print join('', <DATA>) =~ /^start.\n(?:\+.\n)*/gm; # my preference +:) while(<DATA>) { /^start/ .. /^(?!start\|\+)/ and /^(start\|\+)/ and print; } __DATA__ ignore this line :) start text + 123 + 456 + 789 some other text not starting with + another test case start text + foo + bar start text + one + two + three also ignore this line` [download] Outputs: `start text + 123 + 456 + 789 start text + foo + bar start text + one + two + three` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Greedy flip flop operator? by RonW (Parson) on Apr 26, 2018 at 19:56 UTC
You might find this tutorial helpful: Flipin good, or a total flop?	[reply]
Re: Greedy flip flop operator? by Anonymous Monk on Apr 26, 2018 at 14:24 UTC
I do it like this: `while (my $line = <$fh>) { chomp $line; ($line =~ /start text\|^\+/) && print "$line\n"; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]