this
print "$1<$2>$3"
to this
print "...$1<$2>$3..."
[download]

Okay, this will amalgamate two matches closely adjacent matches:

#! perl -slw
use strict;

my $word = $ARGV[0] or die "No search term";

( my $text = do{ local $/; <DATA> } ) =~ tr[\n][]d;

$text =~ s[
    ( (?: \S+ \s+ ){1,3} )
    ( $word ) [[:punct:]]*
    (?= (
        (?:
            (?: \s+ \S+ ){0,6}
            \s+ ( $word ) [[:punct:]]*
            (?: \s+ \S+ ){1,3}
        )
        |
        (?: \s+ \S+ ){1,3}
    ) )
][
    my $extract = "$1<$2>$3";
    $extract =~ s[\s($word)][ <$1>]g;
    print $extract;
]gex;

__END__
Regular expressions have always been a weak spot for me, and I've got 
+a
 question that's got me stumped. Here's the problem I'm trying to solv
+e.
 I have somwhat large articles of text (returned from a search), what 
+I'd
 like to do is capture the word and X number of words before and after
+ it
 while tagging the matching word in the captured text. My inital thoug
+ht
 was to try something like this. The problem I have is that if there i
+s
 more than one term and they overlap, the nth term will not be annotat
+ed.
 So my next thought is lookahead/lookbehind, but they don't capture.
 Is there a way to do this with a single regex? Is a regex even the be
+st
 way to do this? Thanks, -Lee
[download]

A test

P:\test>517393 and
spot for me, <and> I've got a
capture the word <and> X number of words before <and> after it while
of words before <and> after it while
than one term <and> they overlap, the
[download]

As is, it won't try for a third or fourth, (and is currently repeating itself!), but it should be possible to do that using a independant subregex ((?{ $regex ))), I just haven't got it right yet. I'll have another go tomorrow when my eyes are open :)

---

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

I appreciate all the effort. I think to get the best results, I'll have to scan the text. Here's my first attempt.

Seems like there should be a less klunky way though.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

die "No search terms supplied!" unless @ARGV;
my @words = @ARGV;


my $text;
{
  local $/ = undef;
  $text = <DATA>;
}

my $regex =    join("|",@words)  ;
my $expr = qr /($regex)/;

my $get_length = 100; # Characters before and after the end of match t
+o grab.
my (@found_pos, @grab_pos);

while ($text =~ /($expr)/sg) # Find matches and save the positions [pr
+e,post] in @found_pos,  
{
  my $ipos = pos($text);
  
  my $prepos = $ipos - $get_length > 0 ? $ipos - $get_length : 0;
  my $postpos = $ipos + $get_length < length($text) ? $ipos + $get_len
+gth : length($text) ;
  push @found_pos, [$prepos,$postpos];

}


my $first = shift @found_pos; # Get the first "span"
while (@found_pos){
    
    my $n = shift @found_pos; # Get the next "span"
    if ($first->[1] > $n->[0]){ # Overlap?
      $first->[1] = $n->[1];    # compact
      push @grab_pos, $first unless @found_pos;
    }else{
      push @grab_pos, [@$first],$n; # No, seperate, push them onto sta
+ck
      $first = $n;  
    }
}


foreach (@grab_pos){
  
  my $chunk = substr($text,$_->[0],$_->[1]) ;
  $chunk=~s/\b($expr)\b/[$1]/igs;
  print ">>>",$chunk,"<<<\n";
}
__DATA__
Regular expressions have always been a weak spot for me, and I've got 
+a
 question that's got me stumped. Here's the problem I'm trying to solv
+e.
 I have somewhat large articles of text (returned from a search), what
+ I'd
 like to do is capture the word and X number of words before and after
+ it
 while tagging the matching word in the captured text. My inital thoug
+ht
 was to try something like this. The problem I have is that if there i
+s
 more than one term and they overlap, the nth term will not be annotat
+ed.
 So my next thought is lookahead/lookbehind, but they don't capture.
 Is there a way to do this with a single regex? Is a regex even the be
+st
 way to do this? Thanks, -Lee
[download]



-Lee

perl digital dash (in progress)

Ah! I see what your getting at. You want this (single) output with multiple highlights:

this finds <and> matches <and> highlights matches.
[download]

So if two matches occur with say 2 x number of context words of each other, amalgamate the adjacent matches + contexts into a single output.

Hmmm. I'll have to thunk on that.

---

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.