Writing a negative regex using =~

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

Lo,

I am trying to implement a -ve regex using only the =~ construct. ie The regex should match if a string is not found in the source string. I am using a daemon that accepts regexes and applies them to files, which is why I am stuck with the =~ construct.

Here is a sample string:


L,0010,8001149805,003,20121015,0600,267,204193,20121015,1300,,GBFER,204193

I should like to have a positive match if the string doesn't contain GBFER and GBFOO. Just like !~ /(?:GBFER|GBFOO)/.

All I can know about the string is that it starts with "L," and has a fixed number of commas. Everything between the commas may be zero or multiple alphanumeric. Also, the bit I am wanting to test will be between the 11th and 12th commas.

I did have the (as I thought hours ago) wizzo idea of having a conditional regex with a look ahead assertion. If the lookahead matched, I'd use a regex that always failed. If the look ahead didn't match, I'd use a regex that always matched.

However, after hours of google and RTFM, I can't get it to work (it is another node)...

So, any and all comments, ideas, pointers, welcomed.

Warmly John

Comment on Writing a negative regex using =~

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Re: Writing a negative regex using =~ by betterworld (Curate) on Oct 17, 2012 at 10:01 UTC
If I understand your problem correctly, you need a negative look-ahead: `/^(?!.*(?:GBFER\|GBFOO))/` [download] However I suggest redesigning your system so that it does not prevent you from using `!~`.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Writing a negative regex using =~ by ftumsh (Scribe) on Oct 17, 2012 at 10:41 UTC
Heh, given the amount of time I've spent on the regex, that would be the better option!	[reply]
Re^2: Writing a negative regex using =~ by ftumsh (Scribe) on Oct 17, 2012 at 10:53 UTC
That's just the ticket, ta muchly!	[reply]
Re: Writing a negative regex using =~ by ftumsh (Scribe) on Oct 17, 2012 at 10:54 UTC
Problem solved. Thank you all for you time.	[reply]
Re: Writing a negative regex using =~ by kcott (Archbishop) on Oct 17, 2012 at 09:56 UTC
G'day John, Update: My apologies. I thought I'd read your post fully - I must be going blind. You clearly did explain why you wanted to do this. Ignore the crap I wrote. Sorry! Perhaps if you explained why you wanted to do this, you'd get a better answer. However, to do what you describe, why not just negate the result of `=~`: `$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my $x = q{L,0010,8001149805,003,20121015,0600,267,204193,20121015,1300 +,,GBFER,204193}; my $y = q{L,0010,8001149805,003,20121015,0600,267,204193,20121015,1300 +,,XXXXX,204193}; if (! ($x =~ /(?:GBFER\|GBFOO)/)) { say "match" } else { say "no match" + } if (! ($y =~ /(?:GBFER\|GBFOO)/)) { say "match" } else { say "no match" + } ' no match match` [download] -- Ken	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Writing a negative regex using =~ by Anonymous Monk on Oct 17, 2012 at 09:50 UTC
`my( $flag, $regex ) = /(\s(\!))?(.)/; $flag ? text !~ $regex : $text =~ $regex` [download]	[reply] [d/l]