Re: REGEX detailed character replace

Learn some regex-fu. :)

Alright, well, let's take what you have:

|xx-xxx-xxxxx-xxx x/xx|xx-xxxx-xxx-xx-xxxx-xx-xx|
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Now re-write that in a way that we preserve what you want to keep:

|(xx)-(xxx)-(xxxxx)-(xxx) (x/xx)|(xx)-(xxxx)-(xxx)-(xx)-(xxxx)-(xx)-(x
+x)|
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Make that a bit more flexible:

|(\w{2})-(\w{3})-(\w{5})-(\w{3}) (\w/\w{2})|(\w{2})-(\w{4})-(\w{3})-(\
+w{2})-(\w{4})-(\w{2})-(\w{2})|
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Now you'll match all of the interesting bits, so let's set up the inline replace:

$mess =~ s/|(\w{2})-(\w{3})-(\w{5})-(\w{3}) (\w\/\w{2})|(\w{2})-(\w{4}
+)-(\w{3})-(\w{2})-(\w{4})-(\w{2})-(\w{2})|/\1,\2,\3,\4\5,\6,\7,\8,\9,
+\10,\11,\12/;
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Comment on Re: REGEX detailed character replace Select or Download Code

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Re^2: REGEX detailed character replace by pjc955 (Initiate) on Nov 12, 2008 at 16:42 UTC
Thank you everyone for your help! I had looked all over and couldn't find a solution and you all have provided me with multiple ways to go about what I need which is fantastic. I really appreciate the input.	[reply]
Re^2: REGEX detailed character replace by furry_marmot (Pilgrim) on Nov 13, 2008 at 20:34 UTC
What these solutions seem to be missing is the OP wants to achieve a transformation, rather than capturing the individual 'x' groupings. More specifically, part of the string will be preserved in a known manner, while the rest is transformed. In addition, I assume the 'x' characters are stand-ins for real alphanumeric data. So, now I think we can generalize the regex a lot via these rules: - Skip a pipe at the beginning of the line. - Grab a) alphanumerics and dashes up to third occurance of dash, b) the rest. - In "the rest", replace pipes and dashes with commas. - OP says "remove spaces", but his example shows the space being replaced by a comma, so do that. `$s='\|xx-xxx-xxxxx-xxx x/xx\|xx-xxxx-xxx-xx-xxxx-xx-xx\|'; # in one line, if not one command ($a, $b)=$s=~/^\\|?(\w+-\w+-\w+-)(.+)/; $b=~s/[-\| ]/,/g; $s=$a . $b; print $s # xx-xxx-xxxxx-xxx,x/xx,xx,xxxx,xxx,xx,xxxx,xx,xx,` [download]	[reply] [d/l]