Regex, query

[dmsparts]

HI,

i am trying to create a variable which contains a reference number matched from within a text string.

example,

textstring = Michael please look at E123456

where E123456 is a reference number i need to look at. i want this reference number to be added to a variable called $lookatref. The string is always in the same format, NAME please look at REF. The ref can be either one letter followed by 6 numbers or just 7 numbers

the code im using is

$lookatref = "";
$mystring2 = 'please look at ';
if ($reqtext =~ m/$mystring2(.*?) /i) {$lookatref = $1;}

$reqtext is the text i want to match. this is read into the variable earlier in the script. i think it is something to do with the regex syntax, but i just cant figure out what it wrong.

[Ratazong]

It works for me. Are you sure there is a whitespace after E123456? If you are sure that the REF is the last element in the input, you might want to use a greedy capture instead: change  (.*?) to  (.*)

Alternatively, you could append a whitespace to your input before applying the regex ($reqtext .= " ";)

HTH, Rata

[dmsparts]

Thanks. adding the whitespace at the end did the trick.

[SuicideJunkie]

The non-greedy .*? will happily match zero characters and quit if it can.

Why not have it capture the thing you're looking for ([a-z]?[0-9]{6,7}) instead?

[kennethk]

Assuming your input string is 'Michael please look at E123456', your regular expression expects a trailing space that is not there. Rather than looking for trailing white space, perhaps you'd like the non-whitespace character class \S (m/$mystring2\s*(\S*)/i)? See Using character classes.