How to find which comes first: ' " ', '(', or ')'?

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

I have a string, and I want to find which one of the following 3 characters come first (ie, is on the left-most side of a given string) ?

for example:

qwert(ui)"  should return (
qwerty"(ff) should return "
qwer)()("   should return )
[download]

and so on.

THX

Originally posted as a Categorized Question.

Comment on How to find which comes first: ' " ', '(', or ')'? Download Code

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Re: How to find which comes first: '"', '(', or ')'? by merlyn (Sage) on Oct 17, 2000 at 07:51 UTC
`my ($first) = $string =~ /(["()])/;` [download] <Editor's Note> From perlop: If the `/g' option is not used, `m//' in list context returns a list consisting of the subexpressions matched by the parentheses in the pattern, i.e., (`$1', `$2', `$3'...). Examples: `if ( ($F1, $F2, $Etc) = ($foo =~ /^(\S+)\s+(\S+)\s(.)/) )` So, by parenthesizing the character class containing the characters you want to find, the regex will return that character when matched. The parentheses around the left-hand-side variable (here, $first) are required, to put the expression in list context. In scalar context, a regex will only return true or false. </Editor's Note>	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re: How to find which comes first: '"', '(', or ')'?
by merlyn (Sage) on Oct 17, 2000 at 07:51 UTC

my ($first) = $string =~ /(["()])/;
[download]

<Editor's Note>

perlop

If the `/g' option is not used, `m//' in list context returns a list consisting of the subexpressions matched by the parentheses in the pattern, i.e., (`$1', `$2', `$3'...).
Examples:
if ( ($F1, $F2, $Etc) = ($foo =~ /^(\S+)\s+(\S+)\s*(.*)/) )

The parentheses around the left-hand-side variable (here, $first) are required, to put the expression in list context. In scalar context, a regex will only return true or false.
</Editor's Note>

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]