Rob, you were very helpful in showing me how the split and join work, but since I wasn't looking to change anything in $line except to replace the character separating the email addrs, I used what you gave me, and rebuilt the $line. I think it's kinda ugly, though, and I'm wondering if there is a better way. Here's what I did:
$line = 'units = [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]:[EMAIL PROTECTED]'; next unless $line =~ /^units/; (my $units, my $rest) = split (/=\s+/,$line); my @addrs = split /[:;\s]+/, $rest; my $tmpline = join ',', @addrs; $line = $units . " = " . $tmpline . "\n"; This accomplishes the task, but I'm using a lot of temporary variables. Is there a better way? Thanks, deb At 00:29:16, on 07.10.03: Cracks in my tinfoil beanie allowed Rob Dixon to seep these bits into my brain:, > Deb wrote: > > Rob, > > > > Errr, I think I see this. Seems more elegant than a strict > > search/replace. But, I don't understand this: > > > > next unless $line =~ s/^units\s+=\s+//; > > > > Substituting the left side with nothing? I must be reading this > > wrong. > > > > I do understand the split and join, though - I've used split > > a lot, but not join. I appreciate you giving an example. > > Sure. Look > > my $line = 'units = [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]:[EMAIL > PROTECTED]'; > $line =~ s/^units\s+=\s+//; > > print "[$line]\n"; > > OUTPUT > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > (the square brackets are there only to show that there's no leading > or trailing whitespace). > > This line > > next unless $line =~ s/^units\s+=\s+//; > > says > > - Checking whether the line matches /^units\s+=\s+/ > - If so, then remove the matched text and continue > - Otherwise go fetch the next line > > HTH, > > Rob > > > > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- o _ _ _ _o /\_ _ \\o (_)\__/o (_) _< \_ _>(_) (_)/<_ \_| \ _|/' \/ (_)>(_) (_) (_) (_) (_)' _\o_ http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]