in reply to Forcing a regex to fail

I got it to work by replacing the regexp with

qr/(?:$QUOTED|$NUM)(??{'' eq $& || '.' eq $& ? FAIL : SUCCEED})/ __END__ $VAR1 = [ 'name => ', '"foo"', ', fav.num => ', '3' ];
I found that if I only changed $+ to $&, I did not get the correct output:
$VAR1 = [ 'name => ', '"foo"', ', fav', '', '.num => ', '3' ];

Update: Another way to fix the problem is to retain the test on $+ but make sure that the capture parens happen before the test (not around the test):

my $VALUE = do { use re 'eval'; qr/($QUOTED|$NUM)(??{'' eq $+ || '.' eq $+ ? FAIL : SUCCEED})/; }; my $text = 'name => "foo", fav.num => 3'; my @text = split /$VALUE/ => $text; __END__ $VAR1 = [ 'name => ', '"foo"', ', fav.num => ', '3' ];
Note that we still have to check for an empty match. Also note that in this version there are no parens around $VALUE in the split.

The empty match (that necessitates the extra check in the ...?...:... expression) is caused by something in $NUM, though I have not yet pinned it down. The following gives a glimpse of what the engine is up to:

my $VALUE = do { use re 'eval'; qr/$NUM(?{ print "($`)($&)($')\n" })(?!)/; }; my $text = 'name => 5, fav.num => 3'; $text =~ /$VALUE/; __END__ (name => )(5)(, fav.num => 3) (name => )()(5, fav.num => 3) (name => 5, fav)(.)(num => 3) (name => 5, fav)()(.num => 3) (name => 5, fav.num => )(3)() (name => 5, fav.num => )()(3)
An empty match happens after each non-empty candidate fails.

Update 2: Fixed bug pointed out by Roy Johnson. Thanks.

the lowliest monk

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Re^2: Forcing a regex to fail
by Roy Johnson (Monsignor) on May 06, 2005 at 16:30 UTC
    The !$& shortcut will fail to match zero. (I also note that the SUCCEED expression is redundant with just returning nothing.)
    my @regexen = do { use re 'eval'; qr/(?:$QUOTED|$NUM)(??{FAIL if $& eq '.' or $& eq ''})/, qr/(?:$QUOTED|$NUM)(??{!$& || '.' eq $& ? FAIL : SUCCEED})/ }; my $teststr = 'xx0y-0z0.a..0b-0.c-.0d.d.0.0e-0.0'; print Dumper [ $teststr =~ /$_/g ] for @regexen; __END__ $VAR1 = [ '0', '-0', '0.', '.0', '-0.', '-.0', '.0', '.0e-0', '.0' ]; $VAR1 = [ '-0', '0.', '.0', '-0.', '-.0', '.0', '.0e-0', '.0' ];

    Caution: Contents may have been coded under pressure.