my $word = "color: ";
my $lineno = 0;
while (<STDIN>) {
    $lineno++;
    if (m#$word(\w+)#) {
# $1 should now contain the color
    }
}

[download]

There's no need to slurp the whole file into memory if you are sure that there will never be a linebreak between the color: and the actual color name.

Also, if you're sure that $word will never change its value, you should postfix the regexp with "o" for efficiency reasons: 

if (m#$word(\w+)#o) {

[download]

but only if you're 100% sure that the contents of $word will not change!

Hope this helps.

Liz

In reply to Re: return a word next to the word you give by liz
in thread return a word next to the word you give by Anonymous Monk

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! —
  • 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:
    & &amp;
    < &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.