\w matches alphanumerics and underscore. \b is effectively the same as using lookbehinds and lookaheads like this:

(?:(?<=\w)(?=\W|\z)|(?:(?<=\W)|(?<=\A))(?=\w)

[download]

Update: Hmm, or even nicer, as merlyn posted in •Re: Why do zero width assertions care about lookahead/behind? (code examples also updated),

(?:(?<!\w)(?=\w)|(?<=\w)(?!\w))

[download]

So to make a specialized version of \b that views "-" and "/" as "word characters" (sort of), you might use something like this: 

(?:(?<![\w/-])(?=[\w/-])|(?<=[\w/-])(?![\w/-]))

[download]

So maybe something like this will suit you?

my $w = '\w/-';
my $b = "(?:(?<![$w])(?=[$w])|(?<=[$w])(?![$w]))";
my @words = ($rec =~ /${b}[$w]+${b}/g);

[download]

I've tested this a little but not a lot, and it seems all right. You'll want to verify it yourself before you go using it for anything important :-)

-- Mike

--
XML::Simpler does not require XML::Parser or a SAX parser. It does require File::Slurp.
-- grantm, perldoc XML::Simpler

In reply to Re: Re-define Word Boundary? by thelenm
in thread Re-define Word Boundary? by JimJ

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.