multiple matches in a string

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

I want to do the following:

replace all instances of "foo" with "bar" in the following string.

$string = "foo, this foo is just a foo";

i tried this:

$string =~ s/foo/bar/;

which works on the first instance, but leaves the rest untouched. There is an unknown number of "foo"'s in a string.

what is the best way to accomplish this?

Comment on multiple matches in a string

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Re: multiple matches in a string by Juerd (Abbot) on Jan 29, 2002 at 02:27 UTC
Read about `/g` in perlre. Then, fix your script and try again. If it works, read perlretut and don't stop reading until you reach the end. `2;0 juerd@ouranos:~$ perl -e'undef christmas' Segmentation fault 2;139 juerd@ouranos:~$` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: multiple matches in a string by ferrency (Deacon) on Jan 29, 2002 at 02:30 UTC
perldoc perlre To replace All occurrances of a match in a string, instead of just the first, use the /g flag: `$string = "foo, this foo is just a foo"; $string =~ s/foo/bar/g;` [download] Update:"perldoc perlre" was my attempt at a friendly "rtfm" :) Sorry it didn't come across forcefully enough :) Alan	[reply] [d/l]
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Re: multiple matches in a string by dws (Chancellor) on Jan 29, 2002 at 02:28 UTC
... which works on the first instance, but leaves the rest untouched. Consult whatever documentation you have on hand (perlre, if you have the on-line docs), and meditate on the meaning of /g	[reply]