>>>>> "CO" == Chas Owens <chas.ow...@gmail.com> writes:
CO> On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 01:05, Uri Guttman <u...@stemsystems.com> wrote: CO> snip >> $foo = $string =~ /^([^-])+-/ ? $1 : '' ; >> >> that will grab something from the start to the first - and grab it. if >> it matched it will assign it to $foo, otherwise assign ''. (and '' is >> called the null string, not null. perl has no null things unlike >> databases). CO> snip CO> This seems like an overcomplicated regex to me, what is the benefit of CO> doing this over CO> my ($foo) = $string =~ /(.*?)-/; # $foo will be undef if there is CO> no match the negated char class is usually faster than most similar methods. i just like it as it says what i really want - a string without any - chars. also anchoring helps too in saying this string must be at the beginning (he wants the first field). the OP said null and he didn't specify a null string or undef. i did chastise him about that term. CO> In fact, there appears to be a bug in your code: the 1 or more CO> modifier (+) is outside of the parentheses, so you only get the last CO> character of the string. that is correct. it was untested code. uri -- Uri Guttman ------ u...@stemsystems.com -------- http://www.sysarch.com -- ----- Perl Code Review , Architecture, Development, Training, Support ------ --------- Gourmet Hot Cocoa Mix ---- http://bestfriendscocoa.com --------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscr...@perl.org For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-h...@perl.org http://learn.perl.org/
