Philip Newton wrote:
>
> What I use in a script of mine is:
>
> while ($string =~ /(\d\d)-(\d\d)-(\d\d)/g) {
> ($mo, $dy, $yr) = ($1, $2, $3);
> }
>
> Although this, of course, also requires that you know the number of
> backreferences. Nicer would be to be able to assign from @matchdata or
> something like that :)
>
I mentioned in another thread the concept (stolen from SNOBOL) of a
conditional function call, post-match. Winging a syntax which I am
absolutely NOT committed to:
my @list;
my $capture = sub {push @list, makedate(\1,\2,\3);};
$string =~ /(\d\d)-(\d\d)-(\d\d)?&$capture/g;
In a regular, non-global match, the anonymous sub gets called if the
match preceeding it succeeds. If it fails, the function doesn't get
called. In a "/g", it gets called *each time* a global match succeeds;
you get an implicit "while" over the string.
This is NOT completely thought out yet; I've been mulling it over as a
possible RFC. I'm not happy with this syntax as it stands - there's too
much possible action at a distance. I'm not seeing a nicely-parseable,
easily-understandable way of doing this. Would this be a possible:
$string =~ /(\d\d)-(\d\d)-(\d\d)?&{push @list,makedate(\1,\2,\3)}/g;
Or is that just too ugly and nasty for words?
--- Joe M.
