Regex: find all trailing numerical digits in a string

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

Mondo Monks,

I have a collection of strings of the general form:

abunchofalphanumericcharacters_somenumbers

That is, a bunch of whatever that may contain letters, numbers, undescors, dashes and what have you, then a final series of numbers. Two examples:

asdf_sadf-3i897sdyf33987
3w45t-wevt453_838475693

I want to capture the final string of numbers after the last non-numerical character, in these cases 33987 and 838475693. Note that the last non-numerical character may be a letter (a-z, either case) or an undescor or a dash, or any number of other non-whitespace characters. The strings contain no whitespace.

But how?

Thanks.

Comment on Regex: find all trailing numerical digits in a string

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Re: Regex: find all trailing numerical digits in a string by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Dec 06, 2004 at 17:42 UTC
What have you tried? How would `/(\d+)$/` not work? Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing. Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid. Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence. Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Regex: find all trailing numerical digits in a string by VSarkiss (Monsignor) on Dec 06, 2004 at 17:58 UTC
As dragonchild points out above, if all you care about is a final series of numbers then all you need is `/\d+$/`. Add parentheses to capture that, and you have the answer above. Will that not work? Do not rebuke them with harsh words ... but rather lead them gently - with URLs - so that they may learn wisdom.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Regex: find all trailing numerical digits in a string by Fletch (Bishop) on Dec 06, 2004 at 18:09 UTC
Well you really don't even need parens if you can live with `$&` or `substr( $str, $-[0], $+[0] - $-[0] )` . . . </nit> :)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Regex: find all trailing numerical digits in a string by osunderdog (Deacon) on Dec 06, 2004 at 19:49 UTC
It would seem to me that `$&` would be more readable than `substr( $str, $-[0], $+[0] - $-[0] )`. `use strict; while(<DATA>) { chomp; /\d+$/; print "Numeric: [$&]\n"; } __DATA__ asdf_sadf-3i897sdyf33987 3w45t-wevt453_838475693` [download] Is there a case where you would use the substr over $&? *"Look, Shiny Things!"* is not a better business strategy than compatibility and reuse. OSUnderdog	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Regex: find all trailing numerical digits in a string by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Dec 06, 2004 at 19:53 UTC
Re^5: Regex: find all trailing numerical digits in a string by Fletch (Bishop) on Dec 06, 2004 at 20:36 UTC
Re: Regex: find all trailing numerical digits in a string by punch_card_don (Curate) on Dec 06, 2004 at 18:25 UTC
Ya, that's it. I'm terrible at regex's to begin with, made worse by being burned out from a week of 12 hour days. Just a few more days and I can rest.....	[reply]