I'll start with...

$all = ~s/[.|]+/|/g;

Have a look at perlop for details, but ~ is bitwise negation (so ~1 is 4_294_967_294). The s/// operator returns the number of replacements done, so that's what the ~ would be operating on. This is what happens:

  1. The s/// replacement is performed (on the contents of $_, see perlvar).
  2. The number of replacements that were done is bitwise negated.
  3. That's assigned to $all.

The $all =~ s/[.|]+/|/g; syntax is one I'm guessing you're familiar with. In that case, the substitution is done on the variable $all.

Update: Oops, I answered the wrong question.


In reply to Re: question on regexp: by kyle
in thread question on regexp: by roc

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.