Re^2: Converting percentage into number

I'm all for using alternative regular expression delimiters from the slash (/) (especially when matching paths). I do think the pipe symbol (|) is potentially confusing though as, at first glance, my eye sees the alternation metacharacter, not a delimiter. Perhaps it's just me.

Cheers,

JohnGG

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Re^3: Converting percentage into number by GrandFather (Saint) on Jan 10, 2007 at 19:43 UTC
It's just you. :-p I moderately often use alternative delimiters, and when I do I very often choose the pipe symbol - it stands out nicely in the line noise that regexen generally devolve into (even when using /x). Alternatively I use ! for similar reasons, but generally only if I anticipate requiring alternation in the regex. And no, I've not been bitten during maintenance by that choice. ;) DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel	[reply]
Re^4: Converting percentage into number by johngg (Canon) on Jan 10, 2007 at 20:48 UTC
The pipe symbol is not such a problem with `m\|some pattern\|` as the pipes are at either end but when substituting like `s\|old\|new\|` it's the one in middle that causes the double-take. Like you I've not been bitten by it but it does cause me that moment of hesitation. I used to use pipe symbols a lot but I find that I am wearing out the curly brace keys as I tend towards `m{...}` and `s{...}{...}` these days. It might have something to do with my addiction to quoting constructs. :) Cheers, JohnGG	[reply] [d/l] [select]