Trying to strip the Pipe "|" character from a string

binarynomad has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am having a terrible time stripping the pipe character out of a string. I have done everything i can think of short of ripping the pixels out of the monitor.

Any help would be great.

$value = " | " #note i am not actually preloading this

s/'|'//;

s/"|"//;

s/|//;

I thinks its because pipe is a special character, but i don't know how its classified as. -thanks

Comment on Trying to strip the Pipe "\|" character from a string

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Re: Trying to strip the Pipe "\|" character from a string by davido (Cardinal) on Jun 10, 2004 at 17:43 UTC
The pipe character has special meaning in regexps: alternation. That means you need to escape it with a backslash like this: `s/\\|//g;` [download] Or use the tr/// operator: `tr/\|//d` [download] There's good information on the subject in perlrequick, perlretut, perlop, and perlre. ...lots of reading, I know. But it's helpful. Dave	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Trying to strip the Pipe "\|" character from a string by hardburn (Abbot) on Jun 10, 2004 at 17:44 UTC
I thinks its because pipe is a special character Yes, that is the problem. Whenever you encounter a special character, you escape it: `s/\\|//;` [download] But since you're just getting rid of this character, it's faster to use `tr///`: `tr/\|//d;` [download] IIRC, `tr///` does't require you to escape ''\|", because its special chars are more limited. ---- send money to your kernel via the boot loader.. This and more wisdom available from Markov Hardburn.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Trying to strip the Pipe "\|" character from a string by calin (Deacon) on Jun 10, 2004 at 17:50 UTC
In addition, you need to bind the `s///` (or `tr///`) operator to the variable `$value`. A bare `s///` or `tr///` works on the special variable `$_`. Example: `$value =~ s/\\|//g;` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Trying to strip the Pipe "\|" character from a string by davido (Cardinal) on Jun 10, 2004 at 17:43 UTC
The pipe character has special meaning in regexps: alternation. That means you need to escape it with a backslash like this: `s/\\|//g;` [download] Or use the tr/// operator: `tr/\|//d` [download] There's good information on the subject in perlrequick, perlretut, perlop, and perlre. ...lots of reading, I know. But it's helpful. Dave	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Trying to strip the Pipe "\|" character from a string by hardburn (Abbot) on Jun 10, 2004 at 17:44 UTC
I thinks its because pipe is a special character Yes, that is the problem. Whenever you encounter a special character, you escape it: `s/\\|//;` [download] But since you're just getting rid of this character, it's faster to use `tr///`: `tr/\|//d;` [download] IIRC, `tr///` does't require you to escape ''\|", because its special chars are more limited. ---- send money to your kernel via the boot loader.. This and more wisdom available from Markov Hardburn.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Trying to strip the Pipe "\|" character from a string by calin (Deacon) on Jun 10, 2004 at 17:50 UTC
In addition, you need to bind the `s///` (or `tr///`) operator to the variable `$value`. A bare `s///` or `tr///` works on the special variable `$_`. Example: `$value =~ s/\\|//g;` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]