in reply to RegEx to match at least one non-adjacent term

Normally, you'd be able to use \b. 

my $whitespace = qr/[\s()]+/;
my $badwords   = qr/.../i;
my $wordchar   = qr/[a-zA-Z]/;

s/ $whitespace? \b $badwords \b $whitespace? / /xg;

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But since you want to allow "12345Red6789", you'll have to implement your own version of \b. 

my $whitespace = qr/[\s()]+/;
my $badwords   = qr/.../i;
my $wordchar   = qr/[a-zA-Z]/;

s/
   $whitespace?
   (?<! $wordchar )  # At start of word.
   $badwords         # Words to erase.
   (?! $wordchar )   # At end of word.
   $whitespace?
/ /xg;           # Avoid joining two numbers.

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By the way, Regexp::List can build an efficient $badwords. 

use Regexp::List qw( );
my @badwords = qw( r rd red );
my $badwords = Regexp::List->new(modifiers=>'i')->list2re(@badwords);
# qr/r(?:e?d)?/i

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Update: Added Regexp::List bit.

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Re^2: RegEx to match at least one non-adjacent term
by Cefu (Beadle) on Dec 07, 2007 at 17:00 UTC

    Thanks for the info on Regexp::List. I need to get more familiar with the modules that are out there.

    I think your initial solution would end up always leaving a space where the word was? That's fine if the word was between two number but not if it was at the beginning or end. I'm happy with the cheap trim I get from removing spaces along with the bad words.

    If I'm wrong about it always leaving a space, I appologize. I am committing the sin of commenting without executing the example as I don't have access to Perl on my internet connected machine.

[reply]

      Yes it does, in order to avoid "1234 Red 5678" becoming "12345678". Feel free to remove extra whitespace afterwards. Doing it in the regex would needlessly complicate it. 

      s/.../ /xg;
s/^\s+//;
s/\s+$//;

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