Using your first example:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
$currentSentence =~ s/[\ba\b|\ban\b|\bthe\b]//g;
exit;
[download]

I get the following:

P:\>rmv1.pl
Global symbol "$currentSentence" requires explicit package name at P:\
+rmv1.pl line 4.
Execution of P:\rmv1.pl aborted due to compilation errors.
[download]

Then I fixed the error on line 4:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $currentSentence =~ s/[\ba\b|\ban\b|\bthe\b]//g;
exit;
[download]

Which yields the following:

P:\>rmv2.pl
Use of uninitialized value $currentSentence in substitution (s///) at 
+P:\rmv2.pl line 4.
[download]

So, to fix that, I added a value based on your loose description:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $currentSentence = "The big dog rolled in an open field filled with
+ a type of grass.";
$currentSentence =~ s/[\ba\b|\ban\b|\bthe\b]//g;
exit;
[download]

I get the following:

P:\>rmv3.pl

P:\>
[download]

Now morbidly curioius, I added a line to display the result:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $currentSentence = "The big dog rolled in an open field filled with
+ a type of grass.";
$currentSentence =~ s/[\ba\b|\ban\b|\bthe\b]//g;
print "[$currentSentence]\n";
exit;
[download]

I get the following:

P:\>rmv4.pl
[T big dog rolld i  op fild filld wi  yp of grss.]
[download]

I'm now going to ask the question:

What's with all the \baction in your regular expression?

---

In reply to Re: Regular Expression, substitution by marinersk
in thread Regular Expression, substitution by lobs

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.