Matching line with 3 or more repetitions of the same date

[numberwhun]

Hello everyone!

I have a data file that contains miscellaneous information on each line. (Unfortunately, I cannot go into detail of the file layout as it is sensitive information), but I can say that on each line are dates in multiple positions. Some areas of a line contain multiple dates, strung together because there is no separation between the fields (ie: no space(s)):

ie: 05/26/200706/03/200707/24/2007

As you can see, there are 3 dates above. Some have fields following each other that are as above, only there is at least one or more spaces between the dates:

ie: 05/26/2007 06/03/2007 07/24/2007

This is where it gets a little hairy. In some files, there is an arbitrary string of dates. The string of dates would look as follows:

ie: 07/24/2007 07/24/2007 07/24/2007 07/24/2007 07/24/2007 07/24/2007

There may be 2, 5, 7, or more dates, all strung together, but they are all the same date through the string on that line.

I am trying to write a regex that will match this arbitrarty string of identical dates, but unfortunately, it matches any string of multiple dates. Here is what I have so far:

if($line =~ m/(\d+\/\d+\/\d+\s*){2,}/)
{
    print("Line Number $. ==>  $line \n")
}
 

Can anyone please tell me how I can match this string format:

07/24/2007 07/24/2007 07/24/2007 07/24/2007 07/24/2007 07/24/2007

and not any other, whether there are two dates or a dozen or so?

Regards,

Jeff

[numberwhun]

I have said it before and I will say it again. I learn something new every day being a Perl coder, and I LOVE IT!!

Thanks again Miller!!

Regards,

Jeff

[KevinADC]

I didn't read the entire thread so I may have missed something, but this regexp looks like it need to use the string anchors ^$ to match the repeated date and only the repeated date from start to finish of the line:

if (m{^(\d{2}/\d{2}/\d{4})(?:\s*\1){2,}$}) {

otherwise it is only matching a sub string and a different date at the beginning or end will still return true .

[miller]

Yes, if you read the entire thread, you'll see that anchors are not desired. He only wishes to match a substring with the given properties.

- Miller

[KevinADC]

Yes, if you read the entire thread, you'll see that anchors are no desired. He only wishes to match a substring with the given properties.

- Miller

OK, gotcha. :)

......