Stuart Clark wrote: > > Hi All, Hello,
> I'm having trouble with this regular expression > I have data file with colon separated delimiters > The data below has 6 colon delimiters > I want to check to make sure that none of the lines of data has more or less > than 6 colons in it (EG: Lets say David enters his phone number as > 9876:4342) > The rest of my file works ok, its just matching the 6 colons. > > # File > David:smith:21 lake drv::98764342:: > John:Jones:44 ratfink st:west mouseville:8432321:: > ## > > I have tried this > > if ($_ =~ m/:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:/) { > > and > > if ($_ = ~ m/:{6}/) { Assuming the current line in in $_: if ( tr/:// == 6 ) { print "$_ has six colons.\n"; } else { print "ERROR: wrong number of colons!\n"; } John -- use Perl; program fulfillment -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]