in reply to regex to match words and numbers

use warnings;
use strict;

my @chunks = <DATA>;
for (@chunks) {
    print unless /^(?:[*]|[a-zA-Z]|\d+\.)/;
}

__DATA__
1. For further assistance email us at 121@azing.com',
* You can also highlight any matter related to our Officer',
Page 2,
12345

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prints: 
12345

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Courtesy of YAPE::Regex::Exlpain: 

The regular expression:

(?-imsx:^(?:[*]|[a-zA-Z]|\d+\.))

matches as follows:

NODE                     EXPLANATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(?-imsx:                 group, but do not capture (case-sensitive)
                         (with ^ and $ matching normally) (with . not
                         matching \n) (matching whitespace and #
                         normally):
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  ^                        the beginning of the string
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  (?:                      group, but do not capture:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    [*]                      any character of: '*'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   |                        OR
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    [a-zA-Z]                 any character of: 'a' to 'z', 'A' to 'Z'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   |                        OR
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    \d+                      digits (0-9) (1 or more times (matching
                             the most amount possible))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    \.                       '.'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  )                        end of grouping
----------------------------------------------------------------------
)                        end of grouping
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Also, here is an explanation of your regex, which might help shed some light on why it doesn't work as you expect: 

The regular expression:

(?-imsx:[^\d+\.?\*?])

matches as follows:

NODE                     EXPLANATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(?-imsx:                 group, but do not capture (case-sensitive)
                         (with ^ and $ matching normally) (with . not
                         matching \n) (matching whitespace and #
                         normally):
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  [^\d+\.?\*?]             any character except: digits (0-9), '+',
                           '\.', '?', '\*', '?'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
)                        end of grouping
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Update due to Animator's observation.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: regex to match words and numbers
by Animator (Hermit) on Jun 08, 2011 at 14:06 UTC

    Note that the regex (/^[*]|[a-zA-Z]|\d+\./)does not match what the OP wants.

    The regex should contain a group or the '^' needs to be repeated.

    That is: /^(?:[*]|[a-zA-Z]|\d+\.)/ OR /^[*]|^[a-zA-Z]|^\d+\./

    (The regex as posted will return true when it contains a letter somewhere in the string)

    Update: an example was requested but that request was later removed.

    Anyway: an example as requesetd:

    #!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;

my @chunks = <DATA>;
for (@chunks) {
    print unless /^[*]|[a-zA-Z]|\d+\./;
}

__DATA__
a
@
b
@ d
e

    [download]

    Output: 

    @

    The lines 'a', 'b', 'e' are rejected. (ok)
    The line '@' is not rejected. (ok)
    The line '@ d' is rejected. (not ok)

    As far as I can tell '@ d' does not start with a '*'. It also does not start with a word and it also does not start with a number followed by a '.'

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      I agree. I originally had the group-no-capture, then foolishly removed them.
[reply]

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