regex to return matched value from array

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

hi monks,

i am a little stumped. i thought the following code would assign to the variable "match" the value of the item in the array that the variable "term" matches, but i'm getting nada.

can anyone tell me why, or if i'm doing something wrong?

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my @myTerms = ( 'foo bar', 'blah' );

my $term = "foo";

if ( grep /\Q$term\E/,  @myTerms) {
  # the line that i'm having trouble with - $match always = null. 
  my ($match) = ( grep $term =~ /\Q$_\E/,  @myTerms );
  print "$term does match with $match\n";
} # end-if

exit;
[download]

cheers,
reagen

Comment on regex to return matched value from array Download Code

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Re: regex to return matched value from array by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Sep 22, 2004 at 15:06 UTC
`use List::Util qw[ first ]; my @terms = ( 'foo bar', 'blah' ); my $term = 'foo'; my $match = first{ /\Q$term/ } @terms; print $match; foo bar` [download] Examine what is said, not who speaks. "Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham "Think for yourself!" - Abigail "Memory, processor, disk in that order on the hardware side. Algorithm, algorithm, algorithm on the code side." - tachyon	[reply] [d/l]
Re: regex to return matched value from array by borisz (Canon) on Sep 22, 2004 at 15:06 UTC
I think you should nit use `grep` for that. Right from your description: does this code meet your requirements? `my @myTerms = ( 'foo bar', 'blah' ); my $term = "foo"; for ( @myTerms ) { print "$term match with $_\n" if /\Q$term\E/; }` [download] Boris	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: regex to return matched value from array by JediWizard (Deacon) on Sep 22, 2004 at 15:08 UTC
I'm not sure why you are using `$_` in the grep within the if block, but if you use `$term` as you did originally it will work. May the Force be with you	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: regex to return matched value from array by rsiedl (Friar) on Sep 22, 2004 at 15:10 UTC
ahh of course. thankyou. the problems with cut and paste...	[reply]
Re: regex to return matched value from array by zejames (Hermit) on Sep 22, 2004 at 15:14 UTC
your code is not very fast, as you search for $term twice. The following code does what you want : `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my @myTerms = ( 'foo bar', 'blah' ); my $term = "foo"; my ($match) = ( grep /\Q$term\E/, @myTerms ); print "$term does match with $match\n" if ($match);` [download] Kind regards -- zejames	[reply] [d/l]
Re: regex to return matched value from array by pelagic (Priest) on Sep 22, 2004 at 15:09 UTC
... your `$_` is not set to anything! pelagic	[reply] [d/l]