What you have means this:
$a =~ (m/\d\d\.\d\d/) || $_ =~ (m/\$\d\d\d\.\d\d\d/) || $_ =~ (m/\$\.\
+d\d/);
When you want this:
chomp $a;
$a =~ (m/\d\d\.\d\d/) || $a =~ (m/\$\d\d\d\.\d\d\d/) || $a =~ (m/\$\.\
+d\d/);
Don't forget to chomp! Prior to the opperation, or you will have your newline input record seperater ($/) at the end of your line.
Update:
I should also mention using $a, and $b, is bad, they are variables that should be reserved for sort, and golf.
Update:
And, while I'm at it use quantifiers and do something like this:
chomp $a;
$a =~ (m/\d{2,3}.\d{2,3}/) || $a =~ (m/\$\d{3}.\d\{2}/) || $a =~ (m/\$
+\.\d{2}/);
Which matches ##.##, $###.### and $.##, If you wanted $##.## however you could do something this:
m/\$?(?:\d{2,3})?\.\d{2}/ which looks alot like a crummy money regex, and your probably better off going to cpan for that.
Evan Carroll
www.EvanCarroll.com
| [reply]
[d/l]
[select] |
$a =~ /\d\d\.\d\d/ || $a =~ /\$\d\d\d\.\d\d\d/ || $a =~ /\$\.\d\d/
But there's more to say. Note that the second condition can only be true of the first condition is true, so there is no point of having the second condition. Which leaves:
$a =~ /\d\d\.\d\d/ || $a =~ /\$\.\d\d/;
You could combine the two regexes into:
$a =~ /(?:\d\d|\$)\.\d\d/;
but I'm not sure whether that's faster; and whether it's clearer and easier to maintain is debatable.
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[d/l]
[select] |
$a =~ m/\d\d\.\d\d||\$\d\d\d\.\d\d\d||\$\.\d\d/;
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[d/l] |
Alternations in regexen are a single pipe, not a double pipe. Your version has two null alternations, and will thus match the empty string, and since it isn't anchored, anything:
$ perl -le 'print "foo" if "zoombots" =~ m/baz||bar/'
foo
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[d/l] |