Hey Folks,

I see that my former posts have been moded up to where I am now a "monk". While I appreciate the honor, I have to say that I am truly not worthy of that title. I am a seeker, not a dispenser of perl wisdom. I will dispense once I've learned enough. So please mod away! ...down! :D

Well, it's true. Sadly, I have fallen off the Llama. In the past 3 weeks, I've had two valued family members die on me, had my place vandalized (on the day she dies with all kinds of ritualistic santa rea strangeness) and had a terrible session with my therapist.

But, sadly now that I am climbing back on the Llama I find that a lot of Perl knowledge has just sort of drained out of my mind. I am bummed. I want to get back to where I was and continue improving.

For some reason, my brain is so addled that I can't seem to make heads or tales of chp 9 ex 1 *OR* it's answer in the back of the book! god help me! :)

The question states that you should "Make a pattern that will match three consecutive copies of whatever is currently contained in $what. That is, if $what is fred, your pattern should match fredfredfred. If $what is fred|barney, your pattern should match fredfredbarney or barneyfredfred or barneybarneybarney or many other variations. (Hint: You should set $what at the top of the pattern test program with a statement like my $what = 'fred|barney' ;.)

The answer says here's one way to do it:

/(what) {3}/

Once $what has been interpolated, this gives a pattern resembling /(fred|barney){3}/. Without the parenthesis, the pattern would be something like /fred|barney{3}/, which is the same /fred|barneyyy/. So, the parenthesis are required.

Sorry for being so obtuse, but I can't seem to make heads or tales of this problem *OR* it's answer! You thoughts and comments would be appreciated!

In reply to Fell off the Llama by bluethundr

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