in reply to Re: Problem with regex from Learning Perl (3rd edition)
in thread Problem with regex from Learning Perl (3rd edition)

The thing is that the regex (/"([^"]*?)"/) is *not* supposed to match for instance "this"string", as it is, quotes and all. On the other hand, "string" should always match... This is the regex in action... 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

while (<>) {
   chomp;

   if (/"([^"]*)"/) {
      print "Matched: |<$&>|\n";
   } else {
      print "No Match.\n";
   }
}

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Re: Re: Re: Problem with regex from Learning Perl (3rd edition)
by Juerd (Abbot) on Mar 08, 2002 at 09:47 UTC
    It IS supposed to match.

                            q/"this"string"/ =~
m{
    "                   # X
    (
        [^"]*?          #  XXXX
    )
    "                   #      X
}x

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    Remember why "foo" =~ /o/? It's because there has to be an o in there, but it's location in the string has not been fixed in the regex. Anchoring avoids this problem. ^ matches the null string at the beginning of a line or string, $ matches the null string at the end of a line (right before \n) or string. 

    "foo" !~ /^o$/;

q/"this"string"/ !~ /^"([^"]*?)"$/;
#                    X          X

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    ++ vs lbh qrpbqrq guvf hfvat n ge va Crey :)
Nabgure bar vs lbh qvq fb jvgubhg ernqvat n znahny svefg.
-- vs lbh hfrq OFQ pnrfne ;)
    - Whreq

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