Re: Fine tuning a reg exp

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Re^2: Fine tuning a reg exp by markjrouse (Initiate) on Feb 23, 2012 at 17:01 UTC
Thanks all, this is all really useful. I think I've got this bit now, but using the same text as an example: `ABU BAKR, Ibrahim Ali Muhammad (a.k.a. AL-LIBI, Abd al-Muhsin) (individual) [SDGT] AFGHAN SUPPORT COMMITTEE (ASC) (a.k.a. AHYA UL TURAS; a.k.a. JAMIAT AYAT-UR-RHAS AL ISLAMIA; a.k.a. JAMIAT IHYA UL TURATH AL ISLAMIA; a.k.a. LAJNAT UL MASA EIDATUL AFGHANIA) Grand Trunk Road, near Pushtoon Garhi Pabbi, Peshawar, Pakistan; Cheprahar Hadda, Mia Omar Sabaqah School, Jalalabad, Afghanistan [SDGT]` [download] I'm now trying to match firstnames. What reg exp is need to match `Ibrahim Ali Muhammad` [download] the reason being is that I'm trying to add tags to a text document, so that I can work manipulate it like this: `$line =~ s/regexp\<name\>$1\<\/name\>/;` [download] I want to achieve this: `ABU BAKR, <name>Ibrahim Ali Muhammad</name> (a.k.a. AL-LIBI, Abd al-Mu +hsin) (individual) [SDGT] AFGHAN SUPPORT COMMITTEE (ASC) (a.k.a. AHYA UL TURAS; a.k.a. JAMIAT AYAT-UR-RHAS AL ISLAMIA; a.k.a. JAMIAT IHYA UL TURATH AL ISLAMIA; a.k.a. LAJNAT UL MASA EIDATUL AFGHANIA) Grand Trunk Road, near Pushtoon Garhi Pabbi, Peshawar, Pakistan; Cheprahar Hadda, Mia Omar Sabaqah School, Jalalabad, Afghanistan [SDGT]` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Fine tuning a reg exp by LonelyPilgrim (Beadle) on Feb 23, 2012 at 17:59 UTC
Is there anything (punctuation, perhaps? placement with other words and terms?) that will consistently distinguish a name from any other proper noun in your text? For example, how can your script consistently distinguish between "Ibrahim Ali Muhammad" and "Grand Trunk Road" and "Pushtoon Garhi Pabbi", since all use the same capitalization scheme? You might have to define some more complicated criteria for recognizing names. Or will names only be in the headings of each entry, i.e. toward the beginning? In general, you would want: `$line =~ s{($regexp)}{<name>$1</name>}g;` The 'g' flag may or may not be needed, depending on what you're doing. If there's more than one name in a line, that would catch it. If there's only one name, you don't need it. The parentheses () match the name in your line and place it in $1, so you can put the tags around it in your replacement expression. Using curly brackets {} instead of / to mark your regexp avoids having to escape your slashes ("leaning toothpick syndrome," I think someone called it -- it can get confusing!). Any other characters could be used to delimit your regexp if you'd prefer. What I have above is equivalent to this: `$line =~ s/($regexp)/<name>$1<\/name>/g;`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Fine tuning a reg exp by markjrouse (Initiate) on Feb 23, 2012 at 20:05 UTC
Yes, names should only be at the beginning of each line. Yeah, it gets tricky because names are: `, names space\|comma`, but then so are other elements that are bot names.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^5: Fine tuning a reg exp by LonelyPilgrim (Beadle) on Feb 23, 2012 at 20:25 UTC
Re^2: Fine tuning a reg exp by tchrist (Pilgrim) on Feb 23, 2012 at 23:17 UTC
`/^[[:upper:]]+$/` [download] I’ve never understood why people use that instead of the much easier to type, read, and use `\p{upper}`. Can you tell me why?	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Fine tuning a reg exp by choroba (Cardinal) on Feb 24, 2012 at 00:11 UTC
Because the former works in a shell and sed, too?	[reply]
Re^4: Fine tuning a reg exp by runrig (Abbot) on Feb 24, 2012 at 01:12 UTC
Habit, and what choroba said (update: meant to reply to tchrist).	[reply]