extract options from a simple string

[merlyn]

Someone on alt.perl asked:

What is elegant way of convert string like "--param1 blabla --param2 bla bla blo" Into assoc array $a{"param1"} == blabla and $a{"param2"}== "bla bla blo" ? Param values never starts with "--".

Here's my reply.

my $string = "--param1 blabla --param2 bla bla blo";
my %newhash = $string =~ /--(\w+)\s+(.*?(?=\s*$|\s*--))/g;
for (sort keys %newhash) {
  print "$_ = <$newhash{$_}>\n";
}

[svad]

Here is another one, which may be of interest in a light of that task: alternate parsing method for options
I start 80% of my small utilities programs with that lines and found them convenient enough.

Best wishes,
svad

[merlyn]

Ahh, but that one's looking at an already split @ARGV, for which there are dozens of solutions (even some I've hand-rolled). The poster wanted something that comes from a single string.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

[PerpLexicon]

I definitively need glasses if I'm going to read that code snippet...or a bigger monitor...

#!s #!s, oh baby when she moves, she moves...