Another single regular expression, with the @array = $str =~ /regexp/ idiom -
my $str = 'The rabbits is $10 and the dogs are $20. The phone number i
+s 555-1212.';

# updated: thanks to davido to point out the interpolation
# of $10 and $20 in my double quoted string. I have changed
# the double quote to single quote.

my @capture = $str =~ /(rabbits|dogs|\d+-\d+)/g;

print "$_\n" for @capture;

[download]
To be more elaborate, I have constructed the following example to demonstrate how to capture into a hash and an array.

use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my $str = 'The rabbits is $10 and the dogs are $20. ' .
          'The phone number is 555-1212, mobile number 0404-120021';

my $animal = "rabbit|dog";

my %prices = $str =~ m/((?:$animal)s?)\s(?:is|are)\s(\$\d+)/g;

my @phone = $str =~ m/(\d+-\d+)/g;

print Dumper(\%prices);
print Dumper(\@phone);

[download]
And the output is -
$VAR1 = {
          'dogs' => '$20',
          'rabbits' => '$10'
        };
$VAR1 = [
          '555-1212',
          '0404-120021'
        ];

[download]
In general the complexity of the regular expression increases if the number of requirement increases, as well as the complexity of your sentense structure. You will have to pick one best suited to your data.

And of course if you want to parse natural language, automatically recognise what is an animal, and pick out the price from a complex sentense, it will be a mammoth task indeed.

Try pick out the prices from the following sentense :-)

I have a dog and two cats, I will charge you $10 for each cat, but I won't sell the dog to you for $10, I will have to charge you $20 extra.

In reply to Re: Another regexp question by Roger
in thread Another regexp question by carric

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