Re: I need a "non-trivial" bug for my script!

As you're doing regex matching, you could construct something around this feature:

m/PATTERN/cgimosx

(...)
If the PATTERN evaluates to the empty string, the last successfully matched regular expression is used instead.

I've seen rather experienced programmers having been bitten by this...

Comment on Re: I need a "non-trivial" bug for my script!

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Re^2: I need a "non-trivial" bug for my script! by Fletch (Bishop) on Feb 26, 2009 at 22:13 UTC
Another good regex-related one is blindly assuming a match succeeded and geting "stale" results from the last one which was successful sitting in `$1` and friends. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: I need a "non-trivial" bug for my script! by Lawliet (Curate) on Feb 27, 2009 at 00:28 UTC
Hah, I hated that one! Out of curiosity, what is the best method of fixing it? Undefining $1 before the regex (not sure if that is possible), testing to see if the regex is successful, or something else? And you didn't even know bears could type.	[reply]
Re^4: I need a "non-trivial" bug for my script! by f00li5h (Chaplain) on Feb 27, 2009 at 00:36 UTC
Do the match in list context, and don't use `$\d+` at all `if (@kitties = $string =~ /pattern (with) captures/) { paw_at @kitties; }` [download] Obviously you can use `my($cats, $kittens)` in place of `@kitties` there. The other option is check that the match succeeded first `if ($string =~ /pattern (with) captures/) { paw_at $1; }` [download] but `$1` is ugly... unpacking into either an array or bundle of scalars will get you less maintenence-programmer hate. `@_=qw; ask f00li5h to appear and remain for a moment of pretend better than a lifetime;;s;;@_[map hex,split'',B204316D8C2A4516DE];;y/05/os/&print;`	[reply] [d/l] [select]