Re: Empty qr// fails to match -- Is this known bug?

Check out "help perlop".

In the case of an empty regex, perl will use the last successfully-matched regex. So, in your case, it's attempting to use /(1)(2)/ on both of those strings and failing. If you do the following:

$T = qr//;
$U = qr//;
$_ = "12";
/(1)(2)/;
my ($t, $u) = ($1, $2);
$t="12";
print $t =~ /$T/ ? "pass1, " : "fail1, ";
print $u =~ /$U/ ? "pass2\n" : "fail2\n";
[download]

You will see:

"pass1, fail2"

This functionality is... questionable.

Comment on Re: Empty qr// fails to match -- Is this known bug? Download Code

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Re^2: Empty qr// fails to match -- Is this known bug? by wokka (Acolyte) on Oct 23, 2008 at 16:39 UTC
I meant "perldoc perlop", but it doesn't matter, I somewhat misunderstood anyway. since qr// are quote operators, I think this makes perfect sense, given the way the feature is supposed to work. $T represents a compiled regex, but an empty one. When the interpreter sees that it's an empty regex, it attempts to use the last successfully matched one (as it's supposed to do).	[reply]
Re^2: Empty qr// fails to match -- Is this known bug? by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Oct 23, 2008 at 22:59 UTC
$T = qr//; $U = qr//; $_ = "12"; /(1)(2)/; my ($t, $u) = ($1, $2); print "t: $t\tu: $u\n"; print 'before $t gets reassigned: ' . ( ( $t =~ $T ) ? 'pass' : 'fail' ) . "\n"; $t="12"; print 'after $t gets reassigned: ' . ( ( $t =~ $T ) ? 'pass' : 'fail' ) . "\n"; print '$u never gets reassigned: ' . ( ( $u =~ $U ) ? 'pass' : 'fail' ) . "\n"; my $foo = 'bar'; print '$foo never got assigned a $1 or $2 or regex matched: ' . ( ( $foo =~ $T ) ? 'pass' : 'fail' ) . "\n"; $foo =~ /b/; print '$foo got matched against /b/: ' . ( ( $foo =~ $U ) ? 'pass' : 'fail' ) . "\n" [download] This little mess produces: `t: 1 u: 2 before $t gets reassigned: fail after $t gets reassigned: pass $u never gets reassigned: fail $foo never got assigned a $1 or $2 or regex matched: fail $foo got matched against /b/: pass` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]