Re^3: Passing variables into regular expressions

[Tanalis]

in reply to Re^2: Passing variables into regular expressions
in thread Passing variables into regular expressions

Interesting.

The docs indicate that the s flag causes the input string to be treated as if it's a single line. The m flag, on the other hand, causes the string to be treated as if it's multi-line.

It seems that .*? can't cross the newline character when using the m flag:

# doesn't match
my ($span_m) = $str =~ /(\d\d.*?\d\d)/m;

# matches
my ($span_m) = $str =~ /(\d\d.*?\n.*?\d\d)/m;

# so does
my ($span_m) = $str =~ /(\d\d\w+\s\w+\d\d/m;

Treating the \n as whitespace (or explicitly naming it in the regex) seems to solve the problem. Any ideas why that'd be the case?

[johngg]

Looking at the Camel book, 3rd edn., table 5-1 on page 150, the entry for /s says "Let . match newline ... " which sort of implies that /m doesn't. So it is the treatment of the "." metacharacter that changes between the two. This with no modifying flag also matches

($span_d) = $str =~ /(\d\d\w+\s\w+\d\d/;

This might imply that the default behaviour of m/.../ with no modifying flag is the same as m/.../m. I will delve into the documentation when I get a chance.

Cheers,

Johngg

Update:

This passage is in the "perlre" manual page

...
     m   Treat string as multiple lines.  That is, change "^" and
         "$" from matching the start or end of the string to
         matching the start or end of any line anywhere within
         the string.

     s   Treat string as single line.  That is, change "." to
         match any character whatsoever, even a newline, which
         normally it would not match.

         The "/s" and "/m" modifiers both override the $*
         setting.  That is, no matter what $* contains, "/s"
         without "/m" will force "^" to match only at the
         beginning of the string and "$" to match only at the end
         (or just before a newline at the end) of the string.
         Together, as /ms, they let the "." match any character
         whatsoever, while still allowing "^" and "$" to match,
         respectively, just after and just before newlines within
         the string.

...

perl v5.8.4          Last change: 2004-01-17                    1