Regular Expressions Problem

SteveS832001 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: Regular Expressions Problem by eye (Chaplain) on Dec 09, 2008 at 21:11 UTC
Another approach to this is to use the "tr" command: `$Doc =~ tr/\//\\/;` [download] The "tr" command is usually more efficient for character substitutions. You can also use a delimiter other than slash (/) as GrandFather suggested. In this instance, I prefer using paired delimiters like: `$Doc =~ tr{/}{\\};` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Regular Expressions Problem by GrandFather (Saint) on Dec 09, 2008 at 20:55 UTC
That will replace a / with a \, but only one. Quite likely you need to replace many. The /g switch does that, but there is another trick it is worth knowing (many actually, but we'll focus on just this one). Consider: `my $doc = 'This /and/ that.'; $doc =~ s!/!\\!g; print $doc;` [download] Prints: `This \and\ that.` [download] Note the use of ! to delimit the regex parts to avoid the picket fence effect you get using the default / and needing to quote stuff with \. For more regex goodness see perlretut and perlre. Perl's payment curve coincides with its learning curve.	[reply] [d/l] [select]