$foo = "spider9832man23";
print "count = " . $foo =~ y/0-9//;
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Hmm... this could be an interesting question if we where try to count the numbers ... you know 9832 is a number 832 is too and so is 32 and 2 and 983. What'cha think?



Plankton: 1% Evil, 99% Hot Gas.

Accounting only for integers, we have:

my $n = 0;
$n += map .5*(1+length)*length, $s =~ /\d+/g;
[download]

This makes use of the triangular pattern that the number "1234" has 10 "embedded numbers" (1234, 123, 12, 1, 234, 23, 2, 34, 3, 4). No need to put all that hard work in the regex itself. Although, if you wanted to, it'd be:

our $n;
$s =~ /\d+(??{ ++$n })(?!)/;
[download]

_____________________________________________________
Jeff japhy Pinyan, P.L., P.M., P.O.D, X.S.: Perl, regex, and perl hacker
How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid? ~~ Meister Eckhart

how about this (works on STDIN):

#!/usr/bin/perl -ln
$n+=(1<<length)-1for/(\d+)/g;
END{print $n}
[download]

ignore that, I'm off to think.
"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

$foo = "spider9832man23";
my @digits = ($foo =~ /\d/g);
print scalar(@digits); # print 6
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$foo = "spider9832man23";
print ( $count = () = $foo =~ /\d/g); # prints: 6
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# or:
++$count while $foo =~ /\d/g;
# or:
$count = $foo =~ s/(\d)/$1/g;
# or:
$count = () = $foo =~ /\d/g;
# or:
$foo =~ s/(\d)/++$count; $1/ge;
# etc.
[download]

But y/// (aka tr///) is the perfect-fit tool for this job.

Update: s/gee/ge/; thanks, japhy; yes, a typo

You have an extra /e modifier on your last regex, but it ends up being harmless. But it's still extraneous; while it might be a typo, it might also be a sign of a misunderstanding of its purpose.
_____________________________________________________
Jeff japhy Pinyan, P.L., P.M., P.O.D, X.S.: Perl, regex, and perl hacker
How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid? ~~ Meister Eckhart