You regexp is correct except for the (-) part. The (-) requires there to be a - there and caputures it into $2. In this case the parens aren't really necessary. However, you probably want a ? after the -. The ? after something means that it may occur zero or one time.

That said, you might want to replace the (-) not with -? but with [-+]?. [-+] creates a character class matching - or +, so it would allow numbers like +157.0.

I think you probably want a $ or \z at the end of your regex to say that the end must be either the end of the string or a newline before it (for $), or the end of the string, no exceptions, (for \z.)

perlre is your friend, as always.

update: As adamsj pointed out you also used - instead of , with \d{1-3}. I read too fast to notice.

In reply to Re: Regex woes... by wog
in thread Regex woes... by Anonymous Monk

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.