Re: Faced with Null/blank/empty value

I may be wrong here, but it looks like you're only looking for one of these to match. If so, why not do this:

   /^([\w ]+?)\s+:.(\d+)/
or /^([\w ]+?)\s+:.'(.*)'/
or /^([\w ]+?)\s+:.>(.*)</
or /^([\w ]+?)(.*?)/         # no value
or next;                     # I'm assuming this is in a loop somewher
+e

$$ref_entry{$1} = $2 || 'default value here';
print "TEST   $1 ==> $2\n";
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.02

cLive ;-)

Comment on Re: Faced with Null/blank/empty value Download Code

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Re: Re: Faced with Null/blank/empty value by jsprat (Curate) on Jul 22, 2003 at 08:58 UTC
Good idea - especially if it is in a loop. Instead of all three regexes every time, it'll do a maximum of 3. In order to get the same results, however, the three regexes need to be reversed. In bh_perl's example, when the first match and the last match succeeded, $1 and $2 are set in the third match. In your example, if the first match succeeds the third is never evaluated so $1 and $2 are set by the first match. Reverse the three matches and the results will match the OP's.	[reply]
Re: Faced with Null/blank/empty value by cLive ;-) (Prior) on Jul 22, 2003 at 09:07 UTC
I assumed that only one match was required and that bh_perl was just a little inexperienced here in coding that idea. If you look, the 3 regular expressions are exclusive - ie, if one matches, the other two won't. cLive ;-)	[reply]
Re: Re: Faced with Null/blank/empty value by jsprat (Curate) on Jul 22, 2003 at 09:45 UTC
If you look, the 3 regular expressions are exclusive - ie, if one matches, the other two won't. Ahhh, good point. I didn't look at the regexes closely enough.	[reply]