Gavin Bowlby wrote:
So
(\.)?
differs from
(\.?)
in that there is no match in the first case, but there is a match in the
second case?
I'm still confused as to why the placement of the ? operator inside or
outside the parentheses makes a difference.
I thought the parentheses were only there to bind the result to a $N
variable, not to change the operations of the pattern matching itself.
Parentheses are also used for grouping, as in:
/(foo|bar)/
With '(\.)?' the group is optional; with '(\.?)' the string inside the
group is optional, the group is not.
--
Just my 0.00000002 million dollars worth,
--- Shawn
"Probability is now one. Any problems that are left are your own."
SS Heart of Gold, _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_
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