> I know I can write an if() clause to match every possible case, but I'm
> wondering if there is a more general approach that would allow me to
> dynamically match a varying number of extra columns within a single
> expression.
You could shove all the data points into one parenthetical group in
the first regex and then process them inside the if statement.
Something like:
my $line = 'HGYPG5 M1_LG OT 0.00E+00 2.00E-08 amps 1.000E-06
4.000E-11 2.000E-11 6.000E-11 4.000E-11 8.000E-11';
$line =~ s/[\r\n]/ /g; #line wrap
# ... is everything else that i'm too lazy to type ;)
if ($line =~ /^...(?:amps|volts)((?\s+[.0-9eE+-]+)+)$/) {
# last backref contains all data points
my (..., $datapoints) = (..., $6);
my @datapoints = split //, $datapoints;
# process based on (scalar @datapoints)
}
HTH,
Dave
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