Dear monks,

I've just got some code to enhance, and have found the following lines (shortened): 

C:\work\perl\Net\ldap\replicationClient\backup>perl
my $line = "Time: 174657\n";
# line has to be in this format: xxx*:*  (xxx are letters,  * ser any 
+signs)
if ($line =~ /^([a-zA-Z_)[3,].*?):(.*)/) {
  print "$1: $2\n";
}
^Z
Time:  174657

[download]
I can't understand why this pattern matches $line, because a length can be given with {3,}, while [...] means alternatives.

Is [3,] under certain circumstances really the same as {3,}, or is perl really so clever?
I expected everything else than a match (included even Syntax errors because of the first [...)

Best regards,
perl -le "s==*F=e=>y~\*martinF~stronat~=>s~[^\w]~~g=>chop,print"

In reply to Strange regex-behaviour by strat

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