$_ =~ s/^&(\w+)([\(\)]*)/$1()/;

[download]

The above matches : An amperstand (at the beging of the string/line) followed by one or more letters or numbers (in group 1) folowed by and number of parenthesis (in group 2).

&foobar("asdf") # will only match &foobar(

[download]

It appears you are trying to use perl code to modify perl code. This is not usually a safe idea (unless you really really know what you are doing). The Perl parser is very complex, and will account for more things than you are going to want to deal with in a regex.

The having been said... the following I believe will do as close as I can get to what you mean

s/^(&\w+)\(?((?:(?!;).)*)\)?;/$1($2);/

[download]

But keep in mind... this will fail in a situation like:

&foobar("a", 5, qw(dave jen anne matt), map({tr/[a-z]/[A-Z]/; $_;} @mi
+xedCase));

[download]

The perl parser will understand that.... but the supplied regex will not.

They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

—Andy Warhol

In reply to Re: Regex to strip, keep, or add—depending by JediWizard
in thread Regex to strip, keep, or add—depending by bradcathey

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.