If you're going to do this using a regex you're going to need to use m's parentheses matching capabilities.

For the example text you posted, this does work. 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

$line = '<!-- USER 20 - donkey_pusher_6 -->';
print $1 if $line =~ m/\s-{1}\s(\w.+)\s/i;

[download]

What it is saying is, look for a single dash surronded by spaces. Then the next alphanumeric characters up until the next space are stored in $1. That's where the parenthesis come in with your match. If you have more than one set of parens, then your matches are stored in $2, $3, etc...

I am going on the assumption here that all your data is in that format. If not, then hopefully that will give you a start in the right direction.

Good luck!

Some people fall from grace. I prefer a running start...

In reply to Re: Regex simplification by Popcorn Dave
in thread [untitled node, ID 192753] by Samn

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