I.B. wrote:
> sorry, I didn't fraze my question correctly.
^^^^^
phrase
> example :
> $line="abcxabcxxabcxxxabc";
>
> how to match everything beofre "xxx" but not xxx itself?
> the answer i got is to use lookaheads:
>
> my $line = "abcxxabcxxxabc";
> if ($line =~ m{(.*?(?:(?!xxx).))xxx}){
> print "matched: $1\n";
> }
> else{
> print "failed\n";
> }
Your expression is too complicated:
if ( $line =~ /(.*?)xxx/ ) {
would accomplish the same thing.
$ perl -le'$_ = "abcxabcxxabcxxxabc"; print $1 if /(.*?(?:(?!xxx).))xxx/'
abcxabcxxabc
$ perl -le'$_ = "abcxabcxxabcxxxabc"; print $1 if /(.*?)xxx/'
abcxabcxxabc
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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