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in reply to Re: Perl Parsing Power
in thread Perl Parsing Power

Admittedly, it is a basic example, although powerful in its implications.
print "good string\n" if $_~~ /^({(?:[^{}]++|(?1))*+})/;
It tests for proper nesting of brackets, anchored to the beginning of the line. You can try it out:
perl -ne 'print "good string\n" if $_~~ /^({(?:[^{}]++|(?1))*+})/;'

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Re^3: Perl Parsing Power
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Sep 24, 2012 at 10:58 UTC

    You can do that like this:

    C:\test>perl -nE"my$t; /{/&&++$t or /}/&&--$t for split''; say $t ? $t + : 'good string'" {} good string {}} -1 {{}} good string {{}{}} good string {{}{}}} -1 {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} 11 {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} 14 {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} +}}}} 6 {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} +}}}}}}}}}} good string

    But I wouldn't call it RDP :)

    The problem with doing RDP with regex is that you have to match the entire stream with one (possibly (hopefully :) composite) regex. Which is fine for yes/no booleans, but it makes both debugging the regex and reporting where and why parsing errors occur extremely messy if not impossible.


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      Unless I am mistaken, your oneliner will fail if given

      }}}{{{

      as input. It will report a false positive. It is also not RDP, although you know this ;).

      While I will not claim that regex RDP is pretty (complex parsing rarely is), it is possible, and Programming Perl discusses it in some minimal detail.