Please help with regexp - finding all matches?

[Boris Pelakh]

I'm trying to extract name:value pairs from a string similar to this one

{a:b,c:d,e:f}

The individual pieces are more complicated, but its similar in principal

Here is a test script I use

$f = "a:b,c:d,e:f";
@a = ($f =~ m/(?:(\w+):(\w+))(?:,(?:(\w+):(\w+)))+/);
print "@a\n";

I should be seeing "a b c d e f", but I am only getting "a b e f",
i.e. the first and last group matched. Why am I not seeing the rest?
Ideally I want to just assign the result of the match to a hash.

-- Boris

[Jürgen Exner]

Boris Pelakh wrote:

Here is a test script I use

$f = "a:b,c:d,e:f";
@a = ($f =~ m/(?:(\w+):(\w+))(?:,(?:(\w+):(\w+)))+/);
print "@a\n";

I should be seeing "a b c d e f", but I am only getting "a b e f",

What about a simple

use strict;
use warnings;
my $f = "a:b,c:d,e:f";
my @a;
for (split /,/, $f) {
push @a ,(split /:/);
}
print "@a\n";

In my opinion much easier to write and to read than a complicated RE.

jue

[Jim Gibson]

In article <44**************************@posting.google.com >, Boris
Pelakh <pe****@yahoo.com> wrote:

I'm trying to extract name:value pairs from a string similar to this one

{a:b,c:d,e:f}

The individual pieces are more complicated, but its similar in principal

Here is a test script I use

$f = "a:b,c:d,e:f";
@a = ($f =~ m/(?:(\w+):(\w+))(?:,(?:(\w+):(\w+)))+/);
print "@a\n";

I should be seeing "a b c d e f", but I am only getting "a b e f",
i.e. the first and last group matched. Why am I not seeing the rest? You only see "a b e f" in your output because you only have 4 capturing
parentheses in your pattern, and you only apply your pattern once. The
entire string is matched due to the '+' after the second subgrouping,
but the capturing bits in this group are applied twice: first to
capture the 'c' and the 'd', and then to match and capture the 'e' and
the 'f', overwriting the 'c' and 'd'.

If you want all of the matching bits, use a simpler pattern but use it
repeatedly with the 'g' modifier:

my @a = ( $f =~ m/(?:(\w+):(\w+))/g );

but, as Jürgen pointed out, using split twice is simpler.
Ideally I want to just assign the result of the match to a hash.

Well, then, assign the results of the match to a hash:

my %h = ( $f =~ m/(?:(\w+):(\w+))/g );

FYI: this newsgroup is defunct. Try comp.lang.perl.misc in the future.

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Boris Pelakh wrote:

(snipped)

I'm trying to extract name:value pairs $f = "a:b,c:d,e:f";
@a = ($f =~ m/(?:(\w+):(\w+))(?:,(?:(\w+):(\w+)))+/); I should be seeing "a b c d e f", but I am only getting "a b e f",

#!perl

$f = "a:b,c:d,e:f";

@a = split (/:|,/, $f);

print "@a";
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