Re: Is this the best regex?

The regex /^\s\s\s\s\S.*:$/ captures this delimiter, but I cannot use the regex in split(/^\s\s\s\s\S.*:$/,$apps_rep);

Try split(/^\s\s\s\s\S.*:$/m,$apps_rep); (note the /m — it makes ^ and $ match the start/end of lines within the string)

You probably also want to put capturing parentheses in the pattern — /^\s\s\s\s(\S.*):$/m — in order to keep what was split on, i.e. you'd then get alternating entries for record title (app name) and record body.

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Re^2: Is this the best regex? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Sep 09, 2009 at 00:32 UTC
Alternative that splits the records without doing additional parsing: `split(/^(?=\s\s\s\s\S.*:$)/m, $apps_rep);` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Is this the best regex? by Anonymous Monk on Sep 09, 2009 at 04:54 UTC
Yes -- that fixes split, but my thinking was fuzzy. I got focused on why split did not work and forgot that if I did get it working, the delimiter would be thrown away. In the case, the delimiter is data because it has the program name! Thanks for the education on split. I am sure it will come in handy one day.	[reply]
Re^3: Is this the best regex? by Anonymous Monk on Sep 09, 2009 at 04:59 UTC
Wait. I saw your comment re the capturing parentheses. How do I capture both the fields and the delimiters?	[reply]
Re^4: Is this the best regex? by Anonymous Monk on Sep 09, 2009 at 05:03 UTC
I figured it out. SLICK! Split with capturing parens keeps that part of the delimiter. Slick!!	[reply]