$str =~ s[^.{$pos1}\s*][];

[download]

removes $pos1 characters from the front of the string, plus (optionally) any whitespace that immediately follows them. Not complicated but necessary.

As for the unit tests, that would require I publish several hundred lines of support code, which would be a bit much to expect any to look through.

Otherwise, I'd be left making educated guesses. That might work, or it might not.

Fair enough. I wasn't asking for a perfect working solution, just some fresh ideas to set me on my way, which dragonchild and hv both gave me.

Examine what is said, not who speaks.
Silence betokens consent.
Love the truth but pardon error.

In reply to Re^2: Refactoring challenge. by BrowserUk
in thread Refactoring challenge. by BrowserUk

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.