I'd change the regex to exclude quotes, rather than match everything: m,"?(/[^"]*)"?,

Test script (including some lines where I tried to break the match):

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

while (my $line = <DATA>) {
    chomp $line;
    
    if ($line =~ m,"?(/[^"]*)"?,) {
        print "Line matched: $line ($1)\n";
    }
    else {
        print "Line didn't match: $line\n";
    }
}


__DATA__
"/moreIters 10"
"/bootMe any text here"
/fewIter
/some stuff here
"/albatross" foo bar baz
monkeys
leprechauns /not monkeys
/gnomes "not leprechauns though"
[download]

Output:

Line matched: "/moreIters 10" (/moreIters 10)
Line matched: "/bootMe any text here" (/bootMe any text here)
Line matched: /fewIter (/fewIter)
Line matched: /some stuff here (/some stuff here)
Line matched: "/albatross" foo bar baz (/albatross)
Line didn't match: monkeys
Line matched: leprechauns /not monkeys (/not monkeys)
Line matched: /gnomes "not leprechauns though" (/gnomes )
[download]

Thank you so much. This is exactly what I wanted.

I just noticed that this regex fails for the following input:

/gnomes more data here
[download]

My expected string is only /gnomes, whereas it matches everything upto end of the line.. Any idea on how to fix this?

thanks

With that additional qualification, it will get a bit more tricky. My first thought was to add a space to the character class: m,"?(/[^" ]*)"?,

But that doesn't work because it won't care that it has found a space inside or outside of a quote, and will stop the regex. Meaning it would capture just "/bootMe" from the line "/bootMe any text here".

I'd suggest looking into a module like Text::xSV or Text::CSV_XS and setting the delimiter to spaces. Then reject any entry that doesn't have a leading slash. This means dropping the regex entirely.

Something like:


#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Text::CSV_XS;

my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new ({sep_char => ' '});

while (my $line = <DATA>) {
    chomp $line;

    # See perldoc Text::CSV_XS for warnings
    # about this approach with possible embedded
    # newlines:
    my $status = $csv->parse($line);

    my @fields;
    if ($status) {
        @fields = $csv->fields();
    }
    else {
        warn "Problem parsing $line\n";
    }
    
    for my $field (@fields) {
        print "Captured ($field) from $line\n" if $field =~ m!^/!;
    }
}


__DATA__
"/moreIters 10"
"/bootMe any text here"
/fewIter
/some stuff here
"/albatross" foo bar baz
monkeys
leprechauns /not monkeys
/gnomes "not leprechauns though"
/gnomes more data here
[download]

Which gives the output:


Captured (/moreIters 10) from "/moreIters 10"
Captured (/bootMe any text here) from "/bootMe any text here"
Captured (/fewIter) from /fewIter
Captured (/some) from /some stuff here
Captured (/albatross) from "/albatross" foo bar baz
Captured (/not) from leprechauns /not monkeys
Captured (/gnomes) from /gnomes "not leprechauns though"
Captured (/gnomes) from /gnomes more data here
[download]

if (m{"(/[^"]+)"|(/\S+)}) {
   my $match = defined $1 ? $1 : $2;
   ...
}
[download]

Or whatever's appropriate instead of \S.

Update: Fixed slashes

ikegami's solution will work nicely if you only have one such pattern per line. If you have more than one such pattern, you might want to try using the g modifier with your regex. This lets you repeated search for a pattern in a line, like this:

use strict;
use warnings;
my $FORMAT="%-48s match=%s\n";
while (my $line = <DATA>) {
  chomp $line;

  my $bFound=0;
  while ($line =~ m{"/([^"]+)"|/(\S+)}g) {
    my $sMatch = defined($1) ? $1 : $2;
    print sprintf($FORMAT, "<$line>", "<$sMatch>");
    $bFound=1;
  }

  print sprintf($FORMAT, "<$line>", "---") unless $bFound;
}

__DATA__
"/moreIters 10"
"/blah X Y Z"
/fewIter
/some stuff here
"/albatross" foo bar baz
monkeys
leprechauns /not monkeys
/gnomes "not leprechauns though"
/grumpy gnomes "/silly elves" "/funny" fairies
[download]

which outputs

<"/moreIters 10">                                match=<moreIters 10>
<"/blah X Y Z">                                  match=<blah X Y Z>
</fewIter>                                       match=<fewIter>
</some stuff here>                               match=<some>
<"/albatross" foo bar baz>                       match=<albatross>
<monkeys>                                        match=---
<leprechauns /not monkeys>                       match=<not>
</gnomes "not leprechauns though">               match=<gnomes>
</grumpy gnomes "/silly elves" "/funny" fairies> match=<grumpy>
</grumpy gnomes "/silly elves" "/funny" fairies> match=<silly elves>
</grumpy gnomes "/silly elves" "/funny" fairies> match=<funny>
[download]

Best, beth

Thanks for all replies, holy monks! You are the best :)