Re^3: Non-greedy regex behaves greedily

Ok, is there a nice detailed description of the engine that would fill in what causes a second run and what the "?" does exactly?

This behavior isn't very intuitive.

Also, is there another way to get the desired result other than the ugly hack I posted below?

Comment on Re^3: Non-greedy regex behaves greedily

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^4: Non-greedy regex behaves greedily by ysth (Canon) on Jul 28, 2008 at 10:03 UTC
You can force the regex engine to start looking for `</a>` at the end of the string and work forwards by consuming all the string to start with and backtracking character by character: `my $string = q!Back to STATES Menu</font></a></h3> <p align="center">< +a href="index.htm"><img src="home2.gif" alt="Home" border="0" width=" +106" height="30"></a></p> </body> </html>!; if ( $string =~ m!^.(</a>.?)$! ) { print "got $1\n"; }` [download] but there's usually a better way to get what you want done. -- Online Fortune Cookie Search Office Space merchandise	[reply] [d/l] [select]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^4: Non-greedy regex behaves greedily
by ysth (Canon) on Jul 28, 2008 at 10:03 UTC

</a>

my $string = q!Back to STATES Menu</font></a></h3> <p align="center"><
+a href="index.htm"><img src="home2.gif" alt="Home" border="0" width="
+106" height="30"></a></p> </body> </html>!;
if ( $string =~ m!^.*(</a>.*?)$! ) {
   print "got $1\n";
}
[download]

--
Online Fortune Cookie Search
Office Space merchandise

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]