%defaults = map {/([^=]+)=(\S+)/?($1=>$2):()} @ARGV;
[download]

%defaults = map {/([^=]+)=(.*)/?($1=>$2):()} @ARGV;
[download]

%defaults = map {/(.*?)=(.*)/?($1=>$2):()} @ARGV;
[download]

%defaults = map {(/(.*?)=(.*)/)} @ARGV;
[download]

Okay, so we've got;



%defaults = map {(/(.*?)=(.*)/)} @ARGV;
[download]

Which is cute. Except it fails under some conditions. Let's say you want to give the variable 'foo' the value of 'moo shoo= coo'. I'd assume it would be written 'foo=moo shoo\= coo'. Except your example doesn't allow for this.

So I tried a little, and this is what I got;

I was working from the param line as a single scalar variable for simplicity, and my first efforts seemed moderately successful;



$line = 'foo=moo sho=clue\ woo\=moo';
@pairs = split(/(?<!\\)\s/, $line);
[download]



However, this system has the problem of only checking whether the previous character is a backslash - it doesn't allow for backslashed backslahes. The expression would need to understand that '\\=' signified a backslash and then a non-escape literal. But it couldn't just check for two slashes and cancel, for it should accept '\\\=' as a a backslashed backslash and a backslashed equals symbol. It would, effectively, need to look behind for an even number of slashes, and only slash on that.

I had;
@pairs = split(/(?<!(\\\\+))\s/, $line); Which seemed perfect. Except we're not allowed variable length lookbehind, because it's not been implemented yet. Which was very annoying to find out. So, we could match the proceeding backslashes normally, but strap them back on. But that would be horrible. I have tried further routes, but found nothing. *sigh*

tlhf
xxx

No, it would be written foo=moo\ shoo=coo and will be parsed right by my code. The big limitation is that you can't have an = in the key part but I can't see that being much of a problem. And actually an assertion would handle that case.

-pete
"Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever."

Let's say you want to give the variable 'foo' the value of 'moo shoo= coo'. I'd assume it would be written 'foo=moo shoo\= coo'.

I would think that would be foo=moo\ shoo=coo in a Unixish shell and "foo=moo shoo=coo" using an MSish one. In either case /(.*?)=(.*)/ does the job just fine since it will unconditionally use the first equals sign as the delimiter of the variable name, and then just slurp the rest of the string as the value, equals signs or not.

An inadquacy does therefor arise when one wants an equals sign in the variable name, but I don't know if allowing for that special case is even desired, and even if so whether it's worth going through the tremendous pain of handling escapes properly (a problem if I've repeatedly broken my teeth on - it's not possible without a true, if simple, parser).

Makeshifts last the longest.

1. [^\s] is the same thing as \S
2. you might be better off joining @ARGV into a string:

   $_ = join ' ', @ARGV;
   
   my %defaults;
   $defaults{$1} = $2 while /([^\=]+)\=(\S+)/g;
   [download]

   but that doesn't work for escaped spaces ...

my %defaults = ();
my ($k,$v);
for (@ARGV) {
   if (($k,$v) = split('=',$_,2)) {
      $defaults{$k} = $v;
   }
   else {
      $defaults{$k} += " $v";
   }
}
[download]

./foo.pl QUICK=BROWN\ FOX JUMPED=OVER\ THE\ LAZY\ DOG

Now, go ye forth and use a CPAN module to do this! ;) At least break one open and see how they solve the problem, which should hint at the complexity involved: what about multiple options? flag options? what about dashes in front of the keys? etc. Learning is good, but sometimes getting stuff done is better.

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

I'm probably way off here but are you certain that the command line processing isn't interferring here?

Using your exact script on my win32 system, typing:

C:\test>178232.pl "QUICK=BROWN FOX" "JUMPED=OVER THE LAZY" DOG
QUICK,JUMPED
[download]

Of course, the brain-dead CMD required me to quote the parameters with spaces, but the fact that it then works could mean that its your CLP that is interfering here.

Try inserting:

local($,=",",$\="\n");    # << Corrected typo/brain fade
print @ARGV;
[download]

at the top of your prog and see what your getting in?

BTW. Is there any specific reason you are escaping the "=" with backslashes? Your regex seems to work fine without them.

update: correct minor typo. (And again!) Ditto!.

local(",=",","$\"="\n");
[download]

Would you please break this down for me? I don't understand it is supposed to do.

---
"A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack."

It should (of course) have been (and now is:)

  local ($,=",", $\="\n");
[download]

Thanks for drawing it to my attention.

Maybe I am missing the point here, but if you were using split you wound't have to use any of these regexen. (m/(.+?)=(.+)/ as seen above isn't a nice way of dealing with this..) To abstract your problem: You want to eat up everything until an equal sign, and then the rest of the parameter being the key; If there is no equal sign take the entire argument as a key without value. Here's my solution:

my %d;
foreach (@ARGV)
{
    my ($k, $v) = split (m/=/, $_, 2);
    $d{$k} = (defined $v ? $v : "");
}

#this is for checking only..
foreach (keys %d) { print "$_:" . $d{$_} . "\n"; }
[download]

And it does the job.. If you would rather stick to your own code, you might modify it to liik like this:

my $defaults = {};
%defaults = map {(($_ =~ /([^\=]+)\=(.+)/)?($1 => $2):($_ => ''))} @AR
+GV;
print join(",", keys %defaults);
[download]

Regards,
-octo-

That was my original thought (connection problems last night prevented me from posting it though)

my %defaults = map {/=/ ? split(/=/,$_,2) : ()} @ARGV;
[download]

-Blake

under Win32
perl test.pl  QUICK=BROWN\ FOX JUMPED=OVER\ THE\ LAZY DOG

produced an @ARGV of

$ARGV[0] = 'QUICK=BROWN\\';
$ARGV[1] = 'FOX';
$ARGV[2] = 'JUMPED=OVER\\';
$ARGV[3] = 'THE\\';
$ARGV[4] = 'LAZY';
$ARGV[5] = 'DOG';

So to achieve the result required I tried

my $line = join ' ', @ARGV;
$line =~ s/\s(?=\S+=)/\t/g;
@pairs = split(/\t/, $line);
%defaults = map {/([^=]+)           # everything up to the = sign into
+ $1
                       =            # the = sign
                       ((\S+\\\s)+  # all words followed by "\ "
                       \S+)         # word after the last "\ "
                       /x?($1=>$2):()} @pairs;

for ( keys %defaults) {
  print $_,"=",$defaults{$_},"\n";
};

which produced

QUICK=BROWN\ FOX
JUMPED=OVER\ THE\ LAZY
[download]

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
My memory concerns me
- but I forget why !!!
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

use Getopt::Declare;

my $args = new Getopt::Declare <<'EOSPEC' or die;
    [strict]
    FOO <value> 
        first parameter

    TEST <number>       
        second parameter

    EVERYTHING <boolean>        
        third parameter
EOSPEC

for (qw(FOO TEST EVERYTHING)) {
  print "$_ ... ".$args->{$_}."\n"
      if defined($args->{$_});
}
[download]