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Retrieving Matched Expression

Jacko
New User

Jan 26, 2003, 8:25 PM

Post #1 of 4 (1625 views)

Retrieving Matched Expression	Can't Post

I have a script that reads a line from a file and extracts a file name from an href attribute.

I can match this filename with the following regular expression:

Code

 m/\D*\.java/

(this *should* match any number of characters followed by .java)

Now my problem: How do I retrieve and store the string that this regular expression matched?

Thanks in advance.

jryan
User

Jan 26, 2003, 11:09 PM

Post #2 of 4 (1617 views)

Re: [Jacko] Retrieving Matched Expression [In reply to]	Can't Post

In Reply To

(this *should* match any number of characters followed by .java)

Actually, this will match any number of non-digits followed by .java. Try using \w* instead of \D*.

In Reply To

Now my problem: How do I retrieve and store the string that this regular expression matched?

Capture with ():

Code

my @matches = $string =~ m/(\w*\.java)/;

Please see perlre for more details.

davorg
Thaumaturge / Moderator

Jan 26, 2003, 11:10 PM

Post #3 of 4 (1616 views)

Re: [Jacko] Retrieving Matched Expression [In reply to]	Can't Post

It matches zero or more non-digits followed by ".java". Is that what you wanted?

You capture parts of a matched regular expression using parentheses. The captured parts will be in $1, $2, etc. if the match is sueccessful.

Code

if (/(\D*)\.java/) { 
  print "Name -s $1\n"; 
}

--
Dave Cross, Perl Hacker, Trainer and Writer
http://www.dave.org.uk/
Get more help at Perl Monks

Paul
Enthusiast

Jan 27, 2003, 3:01 AM

Post #4 of 4 (1614 views)

Re: [jryan] Retrieving Matched Expression [In reply to]	Can't Post

Filenames often contains more characters than \w matches. Also using \w* means you'd match a file called ".java" - probably not what's needed.

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