#!/usr/bin/env perl use warnings; use strict; my @cases = ( q{'abc"def'}, q{'abc'}, q{"abc"}, q{''}, q{'abc'def'}, # Want this to fail matching q{'This shouldn't match'}, # Want this to fail matching q{"This isn't a problem"}, q{"abc}, q{abc"}, q{abc}, q{'abc"}, q{'ab''}, # Want this to fail matching ); strip_quotes($_) for @cases; # If we can remove a matching pair of single or double quotes from # a string, without the quote symbol also appearing within the string, # do so. Otherwise don't change the string. sub strip_quotes { my $line = shift; print "\n$line\n"; # NO NEGATIVE LOOKAHEAD # This works except it allows an embedded delimiter if ( $line =~ m{^ # anchor ( # capture delimiter in pos 1 ["'] # delim is single or double quote ) (.*) # anything \g1$}x # finally, the delim ) { print " 1- Got a match: delimiter was {$1}, body was {$2}\n"; } else { print " 1- No match.\n"; } # ATTEMPTING NEGATIVE LOOKAHEAD # This should fail if the delimiter is found in non-terminal pos. if ( $line =~ m{^ # anchor ( # capture delimiter in pos 1 ["'] # delim is single or double quote ) (.*(?!\g1)) # neg lookahead for delim \g1$}x # finally, the delim ) { print " 2- Got a match: delimiter was {$1}, body was {$2}\n"; } else { print " 2- No match.\n"; } }