Getting the value of the matched text

[milage]

Hi,

I have a string variable which I have done some pattern matching on and I want to assign the matched text to a new variable.

I have this:

$new_variable = $the_string =~ m/^\s*\w+/;

However, when the pattern is found this assigns 1 (true) to the new_variable rather than the string itself. How can i get it to assign the string?

Cheers

 

[PerlIsGood]

if ( $my_string =~ /(^\s*\w+)/ ) {
    $new_variable = $1;
}

Or something like that... Notorious P.I.G.

 

[milage]

cheers,

worked a treat.

 

[Coderifous]

It looks as though your are trying to get rid of leading spaces. This is one way to do that:

($new_string = $old_string) =~ s/^\s*//;

Which would give you a copy of the old_string, minus the leading spaces. If you really want to capture stuff in your matches, you'll need to use capturing-parentheses:

$old_string =~ /^\s*[bold](\w+)[/bold]/;
$new_string = $1;
# capturing-parens store the
# matched text in $n variables, where n
# is a number indicating which paren-capture it is
# (you can have more than one set)

Or you could even use the g modifier and in list context, assign captures directly to variables:

($name, $number) = $entry =~ /(\w+)\s+(\d+)/g;

There's still more ways to get at the data matched... using $', $& and $`, using while-loops and the g-modifier, and more. That's called TMTOWTDI.

Cool huh?

--jim

 

[Coderifous]

OOps. I'm too slow. Started typing when no replies were up. Guess I need to learn how to type faster.

--jim

 

[Coderifous]

Good god. I wish you could go back and edit posts here.:

My seventh line in the previous*2 post should look like this:

$old_string =~ /^\s*(\w+)/;

Damnit.

--jim

 

[PerlIsGood]

That's ok, I almost just posted a foeach line in my last post. Caught it just before I hit submit...

*Edit buttons would be a real * Notorious P.I.G.