Re: Counting the number of items returned by split without using a named array

[prasadbabu]

Here is one way to do it.

use strict;
use warnings;

$_ = 'here the text goes';
my @entries;
print  scalar (@entries = split /\s+/, $_);

Without return list, here is one way

use strict;
use warnings;

$_ = 'here the text goes';
my $count;
print $count = $_ =~ s/\S+//g;

updated: Added second method as blazar pointed out, without return list, though not a most elegant way. Thanks.

[blazar]

"So what's the most elegant way to get the number of entries and throw away the resulting array?"

I think he means: "discarding the return list, retaining only its lenght".

[Anonymous Monk]

Ha, great


print $count = $_ =~ s/\S+//g;


was probably what I wanted - just didnt know you could do that with a simple search (although I wondered if one couldnt just use a search in some way)

Thx a lot

Why does a simple


print $count = s/\S+//g;


not work, though?

This (as suggested below) did not count anything either:


$count = () = s/\S+//g;


I.

[borisz]

I use m//g bellow __not__ s///g.

[blazar]

Although this may occasionally work for you in this circumstance, it's not logical to modify the original string just to count the number of occurrences. Just use /\S+/g instead.