Hi Monks,

I have a lot of large strings, which I want to find in a file. The strings contain all kind of charcaters. The problem is, that some of this string can contain a number (or part), which can be different, but should match.

for example

"nnxx.yy2 = 234 abc"

should match 

"nnxx.yy2 = 333 abc"
"nnxx.yy2 = 1 abc"
"nnxx.yy2 = 2345 abc"

[download]

My idea was to convert such a string into a regular expression. So I would have to escape all special regular chars, like * or + or ^ and so on. The number I could than replace by a regular expression like "\d+".

so I would match my example with

m/nnxx\.yy2 = \d+ abc/

My question:

Which characters would I have to escape from a string, that I do not miss any ?

How I can change the part, that can be different, is clear for me. (I have the fear I forget some seldom characters and than my script has problems after some time)

Or do you have an Idea, how it can convert a string automatically into a match pattern even more simplier ?

MANY THANKS

In reply to convert string into a match pattern by Anonymous Monk

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