Matching Problem

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

Hi there Monks,
In my code I have this:

my $title = "This is the New Title cool_image.gif Tue Feb 8 09:43:17 2
+005";
if($title =~/(.*?)(\w+|\W+\.\w+)(.*?)/ig){

print "<br><b><font color=yellow>**1=$1 *2=$2 * 3=$3 *****</b></font><
+br>"; 
}else{print "<br><b><font color=yellow>1316 No ok match</b></font>";}
[download]

Actually what I am trying to get, is this part out of the text:
This is the New Title, and ignore the rest, but I am having no luck, why I am not matching on the first $1?
I just need to grab any text before it finds an image name.
Thank you for the help!

Comment on Matching Problem Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Matching Problem by Random_Walk (Prior) on Feb 08, 2005 at 15:51 UTC
something like this will do it if it is always a .gif that marks the break. `my $title = "This is the New Title cool_image.gif Tue Feb 8 09:43:17 2 +005"; if ($title=~/(.)\s+(\w+\.gif)/) { print $1 }else { print "no match" }` [download] or to be a bit more generic `$title=~/(.)\s+(\w+\.\w+)/` [download] there is a problem if you have two xxxx.xxx items in the title, the .* will be greedy so in that case we can use this `$title=~/(.*?)\s+(\w+\.\w+)/` [download] Cheers, R. Pereant, qui ante nos nostra dixerunt!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Matching Problem by jdporter (Paladin) on Feb 08, 2005 at 15:27 UTC
Well, assuming image file names contain no spaces, you could exploit the (apparent) rigidness of the date format: `$title =~ /(.*) (\S+) (... ... \d+ ..:..:.. ....)$/` [download] After that, the actual title will be in $1, the image file name will be in $2, and the date string will be in $3.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Matching Problem by RazorbladeBidet (Friar) on Feb 08, 2005 at 15:46 UTC
The grouping is a little off: `$title =~/(.?)((?:\w+\|\W+)\.\w+)(.?)/ig` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Matching Problem by cog (Parson) on Feb 08, 2005 at 15:51 UTC
You're not matching This is the New Title on $1, only This, because you're using a non-greedy match: `(.*?)`. As soon as it gets to a \W, it stops "putting things in $1". Exactly what output are you looking for? Are you trying to extract everything before the date? Everything before the filename?	[reply] [d/l]