Hello merrymonk,

My approach is similar to those already given:

#! perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $num = qr{ \d+ (?: \. \d* )? }x;

my @patterns =
(
    qr{ ^ N $num G03X $num Y $num K $num J $num H1M25 $ }x,
    qr{ ^ N $num M20 $ }x,
    qr{ ^ N $num G45 $ }x,
    qr{ ^ N $num G01X $num Y $num C $num M25 $ }x,
);

my $count = 1;
my %patterns = map { $_ => $count++ } @patterns;

OUTER: 
while (my $line = <DATA>)
{
    chomp $line;

    for (keys %patterns)
    {
        if ($line =~ $_)
        {
            print "$line matches pattern $patterns{$_}\n";
            next OUTER;
        }
    }

    print "No match found for $line\n";
}

__DATA__
N335G03X247.16Y580.07K6.89J96.62H1M25
N340M20
N345G45
N350G01X832.56Y692.92C275.44M25
N355M20
N360G46C0
N365G03Y720.88I146.74J13.98H36M25
[download]

Output:

19:53 >perl 1287_SoPW.pl
N335G03X247.16Y580.07K6.89J96.62H1M25 matches pattern 1
N340M20 matches pattern 2
N345G45 matches pattern 3
N350G01X832.56Y692.92C275.44M25 matches pattern 4
N355M20 matches pattern 2
No match found for N360G46C0
No match found for N365G03Y720.88I146.74J13.98H36M25

20:04 >
[download]

Notes:

• By defining a regular expression which matches a number (integer or floating point) and storing it in $num, I am able to simplify the creation of the longer regular expressions against which the data will be tested. The use of $num, combined with the /x modifier, also makes the regular expressions easier to read and maintain.

• Storing the regular expressions in a hash makes it straightforward to identify which pattern was matched whenever a match is successful. This could be useful for debugging.

Hope that helps,

---

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