in reply to simpler regex

Not well tested, but 

$_ = 'A A Jones'; s[(?<=[A-Z])(?=\s)][.]g; print;;
A. A. Jones

$_ = 'Bob J Smith'; s[(?<=[A-Z])(?=\s)][.]g; print;;
Bob J. Smith

$_ = 'Dr P J van Houten'; s[(?<=[A-Z])(?=\s)][.]g; print;;
Dr P. J. van Houten

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Re^2: simpler regex
by johngg (Canon) on May 10, 2007 at 09:01 UTC
    I think that's going to start doing the wrong thing if Dr van Houten starts putting letters after his name; the first set are ok but as you start adding more you get unwanted dots.

    $ perl -le '$_ = q{Dr P J van Houten MD};
> s[(?<=[A-Z])(?=\s)][.]g;
> print;'
Dr P. J. van Houten MD
$ perl -le '$_ = q{Dr P J van Houten MD FRCS};
> s[(?<=[A-Z])(?=\s)][.]g;
> print;'
Dr P. J. van Houten MD. FRCS
$

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    A possible solution is to use alternation of two look-behinds.

    $ perl -le '$_ = q{Dr P J van Houten MD FRCS};
> s{(?:(?<=\A[A-Z])|(?<=\s[A-Z]))(?=\s)}{.}g;
> print;'
Dr P. J. van Houten MD FRCS
$

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    Cheers,

    JohnGG

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