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I have a question about capturing information from a regular expression
match

when i run

$string="the rain in spain falls mainly on the plain";
$searchpattern=".ain";

while ($string=~m/$searchpattern/g)
{
$position=pos($string)-length($search);
print "position=$position\n";
pos($string)=$position+1;
}

-- this searches for all occurences of $search in $string, and prints out
the starting position of each
position=8
position=17
position=28
position=43


but when i run
while (($capture)=$string=~m/($searchpattern)/g)
{
$position=pos($string)-length($searchpattern);
print "position=$position : $capture\n";
pos($string)=$position+1;
}

-- I am able to capture the match, but pos($string) is empty, resulting in
$position equal to 0-length($capture)
position=-4 : rain

When capturing the match, does the pos pointer reset? Is there a way of
using this pointer with capture?

Thanks
Larry

I sorted out how to get this working.
instead of capturing into a variable, I capture into the $1 and use that

ie
while($string=~/($searchpatten)/g)
{
$position=pos($string)-length($searchpattern);
print "position=$position: $1\n";
pos($string)=$position+1;
}

this does work, but I am still curious to know why my capturing into a
variable resets pos($string)

Larry








"UToronto News" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> I have a question about capturing information from a regular expression
> match
>
> when i run
>
> $string="the rain in spain falls mainly on the plain";
> $searchpattern=".ain";
>
> while ($string=~m/$searchpattern/g)
> {
> $position=pos($string)-length($search);
> print "position=$position\n";
> pos($string)=$position+1;
> }
>
> -- this searches for all occurences of $search in $string, and prints out
> the starting position of each
> position=8
> position=17
> position=28
> position=43
>
>
> but when i run
> while (($capture)=$string=~m/($searchpattern)/g)
> {
> $position=pos($string)-length($searchpattern);
> print "position=$position : $capture\n";
> pos($string)=$position+1;
> }
>
> -- I am able to capture the match, but pos($string) is empty, resulting in
> $position equal to 0-length($capture)
> position=-4 : rain
>
> When capturing the match, does the pos pointer reset? Is there a way of
> using this pointer with capture?
>
> Thanks
> Larry
>
>
>

[posted & mailed]

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004, LEH wrote:

>this does work, but I am still curious to know why my capturing into a
>variable resets pos($string)
>
>> while (($capture)=$string=~m/($searchpattern)/g)

The problem is that saying

(...) = $string =~ /pattern/g;

enforces *list* context on the pattern match, and a global pattern match
in list context matches as many times as possible, and afterwards, pos()
doesn't have a useful value.

--
Jeff "japhy" Pinyan % How can we ever be the sold short or
RPI Acacia Brother #734 % the cheated, we who for every service
RPI Corporation Secretary % have long ago been overpaid?
http://japhy.perlmonk.org/ %
http://www.perlmonks.org/ % -- Meister Eckhart

UToronto News <> wrote in comp.lang.perl.misc:
>
> I have a question about capturing information from a regular expression
> match
>
> when i run

....without strictures and warnings, it seems.

> $string="the rain in spain falls mainly on the plain";
> $searchpattern=".ain";
>
> while ($string=~m/$searchpattern/g)
> {
> $position=pos($string)-length($search);
^^^^^^^
There is no variable "$search". "strict" would have told you so.
Also, the length of the search pattern is generally not the same
as the length of the match. Use the @- array for the beginning
of a match.

> print "position=$position\n";
> pos($string)=$position+1;

This is an error. pos( $string) points already one character past
the match. Incrementing it further may miss some.

> }
>
> -- this searches for all occurences of $search in $string, and prints out
> the starting position of each
> position=8
> position=17
> position=28
> position=43

Have you checked that? Your positions are too large by 4:

print "position=$-[ 0]\n" while $string =~ /$searchpattern/g;

position=4
position=13
position=24
position=39

Your question about pos() after a match in list context has been answered.

Anno