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Hello,

I'm trying to write a reverse-function with regex,

The following code gives: fedcba
$message = "abcdef";
$message =~ s/(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
print $message;

But I like to use something like:
$message =~ s/(.){6}/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
or even
$message =~ s/(.)*/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;

But that does not work, and all I can do is hope one of you can help me
out..

Thanks in advance,
Pieter

Pieter Online wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm trying to write a reverse-function with regex,
>
> The following code gives: fedcba
> $message = "abcdef";
> $message =~ s/(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
> print $message;
>
> But I like to use something like:
> $message =~ s/(.){6}/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
> or even
> $message =~ s/(.)*/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
>
> But that does not work, and all I can do is hope one of you can help me
> out..

$message =~ s/(.*)/reverse $1/eg;



Regards

M.

Michele Dondi <> wrote in comp.lang.perl.misc:
> On 25 Jan 2007 00:56:13 -0800, "Pieter Online"
> <> wrote:
>
> >I'm trying to write a reverse-function with regex,

[...]

> BTW: I tried doing the same with a single s/// instead of a pattern
> match, but it doesn't work:
>
> #!/usr/bin/perl
>
> use strict;
> use warnings;
>
> sub myownreverse {
> my $s=shift;
> $s =~ s/^(.)(.*)/myownreverse($2) . $1/e;
> $s;
> }
>
> print myownreverse 'abcdef';
>
> __END__
>
> The latter yields
>
> C:\temp>foo.pl
> ffedcb
>
> for me... (And I see no simple modification to correct it.)

That's because in the substitution part of s/// the call to
myownreverse() destroys the value of $1 which you are using
in the same expression. Save the initial value to fix it:

sub myownreverse {
local $1;
my $s=shift;
$s =~ s/^(.)(.+)/my $x = $1; myownreverse($2) . $x/e;
$s;
}

I have also changed the second capture from (.*) to (.+). If
(.*) is empty there is nothing to do.

Anno

On 25 Jan 2007, wrote:

> I'm trying to write a reverse-function with regex,
>
> The following code gives: fedcba
> $message = "abcdef";
> $message =~ s/(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
> print $message;
>
> But I like to use something like:
> $message =~ s/(.){6}/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
> or even
> $message =~ s/(.)*/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
>
> But that does not work, and all I can do is hope one of you can help me
> out..

Regular expressions can't reverse arbitrary strings, it's not part of
their functionality. The only way is to do s/(.*)/reverse($1)/e which
of course is better written as $message = reverse $message;

Ted

Thank you guys,
you're amazing!!!

The recursive function was great and you're explanation really helped
me to improve my regex juggling skillz.

Best regards,
Pieter

On Jan 25, 4:48 pm, Ted Zlatanov <t...@lifelogs.com> wrote:
> On 25 Jan 2007, pieter.onl...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > I'm trying to write a reverse-function with regex,
>
> > The following code gives: fedcba
> > $message = "abcdef";
> > $message =~ s/(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
> > print $message;
>
> > But I like to use something like:
> > $message =~ s/(.){6}/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
> > or even
> > $message =~ s/(.)*/$6$5$4$3$2$1/;
>
> > But that does not work, and all I can do is hope one of you can help me
> > out..Regular expressions can't reverse arbitrary strings, it's not part of
> their functionality. The only way is to do s/(.*)/reverse($1)/e which
> of course is better written as $message = reverse $message;
>
> Ted