Well there are quite a few typos in your code which mean that it doesn't compile, but I assume they are just transcription errors.

Fixing them and running your code, I see that nothing is output as you describe. The problem is in the line

if ( $contents =~ /(line2-)(\w*)/g ) {

The /g is unnecessary here and is causing the expression to evaluate as false. Removing the /g makes the code work as expected.

The /g option matches the regex as often as it can against your string. The final time it tries to match, the match fails and the operator returns false. Without the /g the match only takes place the one time it needs to succeed and the operator returns true.

Update: Yeah. As others in this thread point out, I had the right fix, but the wrong explanation. Should drink more coffee before posting :)

--
<http://www.dave.org.uk>

Perl Training in the UK <http://www.iterative-software.com>

In reply to Re: weird regex problem by davorg
in thread weird regex problem by toadi

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