unmatched ()

[Graziella]

Hello,
with these lines of code
if ($buf =~ /($pattern)/){
$match = $1;
print "MATCH $match\n";
}

I get the error message "unmatched () in regexp ...". No surprise since $pattern is actually a regex, and might contain unmatched ( and similar.
For this reason, if I use \Q, I will no longer have a regex in $pattern, because all \ ? * etc. will be commmented out.
What other option do I have to avoid the error and still be able to match it with $1 in the second line above ?

Thank you,

Grazia

 

[TonyGroves]

If $pattern is a regex, then Perl is correct in rejecting it due to invalid syntax. If you want a regex to treat any special characters literally, then those characters need to be escaped, for example ( to \( .

 

[rharsh]

You could try using the quotemeta function on $pattern - it might do what you're looking for.