Correction:
Will not match "a  cat"
That requires: m/a (?:black|grey|white)? cat/;

On 5/13/07, yitzle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
To add to John:
m/a (?:black|grey|white) cat/;
Will match one of these:
 - "a black cat"
 - "a grey cat"
 - "a white cat"
 - "a  cat" (please note two spaces)
The leading double astrix confuses me. A '*' after a pattern will
match the pattern 0 or more times. ** means nothing to me.


On 5/13/07, John W. Krahn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 小楊 wrote:
> > Does anyone know the following syntax's meaning or usage?
> >
> > Can anyone help me to understand this syntax? Or if available, can anyone
> > provide me some useful example to understand more?
> >
> > Thank you all that help me.
> >
> > The syntax is as follow:
> >
> > */**a (?:black|grey|white) cat/*
>
>
> (  ) are capturing parentheses, they capture the enclosing text inside the
> parentheses and store it in one of the numerical variables like $1, $2, $3, 
etc.
>
> (?:  ) are NON-capturing parentheses, they don't effect the numerical 
variables.
>
> | is the aternation meta-character, it delimits different alternative patterns
> that you want to match.  Match 'black' OR match 'grey' OR match 'white'.
>
> perldoc perlre
>
>
>
> John
> --
> Perl isn't a toolbox, but a small machine shop where you can special-order
> certain sorts of tools at low cost and in short order.       -- Larry Wall
>
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>


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