I have a substitution that expands variables and it appears many times in my code. It looks like this:

  $link =~ s/((?:\$\w+)(?:->\{\w+\})?)/$1/eeg; # Expand variables. UNSAFE!

I recently modified the regex so I could expand syntax like $foo->{bar} but when I did that I then had to modify every single copy. I think it would be cleaner if I deduplicate it, but I'm not sure of the best way.

I can't easily stick it in a function because the variables that are being expanded are not visible in the function. I think it might be possible if I prefix all of them local, but that seems like it might create unintended problems.

Also, afaict I can't create some sort of a pseudo precompiled substitution because of the same restrictions (ie to-be-expanded variables not visible in function).

So for right now I've precompiled just the regex:

my $VAR_CAPTURE = qr/((?:\$\w+)(?:->\{\w+\})?)/;
...
  $foo =~ s/$VAR_CAPTURE/$1/eeg;
...
  $bar =~ s/$VAR_CAPTURE/$1/eeg;
...
etc etc

Is there a better way to do this, or one that is more easily understood?

For example I think something like this would look a lot better:

expand_variables_UNSAFE($foo);

In reply to Deduplicating a substitution that expands variables by raysatiro

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