The ^ at the start indicates match from the start of a new line.
You don't need this. Try:-
$look =~ /\w{4}\:??\s+([\d\/]+)/;
Gary Luther wrote:
>
> I am having to parse dates out of lines where the date format varies considerably.
>
> Here is the statement that is contained in $look
>
> EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/12/01 DAILY CUSTOMER ACCOUNT REPORT
> RUN DATE: 07/13/01
>
> There are two blanks (in this particular file in front of the EFFECTIVE.
> The DATE: 07/12/01 can appear in slightly varying formats from report to report. The
>possibilities are:
>
> DATE: nn/nn/nn
> DATE nn/nn/nn
> DATE : nn/nn/nn
> DATE: nn/nn/nnnn
>
> and perhaps more that I have yet to discover. Here is the match statement I am using
>to parse out the date:
>
> $look =~ /^\s*DATE\s?\W?\s+(\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{2,4})/;
>
> What I expect in $1 is 07/12/01
>
> The \W? is for the disappearing colon (:)
>
> I have run several programs through that have a similar structure and they seem to
>work but this one fails for some reason.
>
> So...Guru's I would appreciate your inciteful reflections and / or incantations as
>to why this is not working.
>
> TIA
>
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> Gary Luther.vcfName: Gary Luther.vcf
> Type: Plain Text (text/plain)
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