regex lying to me

The following regex is failing strangely:

=09my @tables =3D $content =3D~ m#\[table\](.*?)\[/table\]#g;
=09foreach (@tables) {
=09=09my $table =3D $_;
=09=09if ($content =3D~ m#$table#) {print "yes old table is there!\n";}
=09}

@tables contains 2 items (correctly) but seaching for each item in
$content does not match.

How can it find 2 matches and then claim that each of them aren't there?

Perl 5.8.6 Mac OS X 10.3.8

Thanks

bemused Angie

angie ahl wrote:
> The following regex is failing strangely:
>=20
> 	my @tables =3D $content =3D~ m#\[table\](.*?)\[/table\]#g;
> 	foreach (@tables) {
> 		my $table =3D $_;
> 		if ($content =3D~ m#$table#) {print "yes old table is there!\n";}
> 	}
>=20
> @tables contains 2 items (correctly) but seaching for each item in
> $content does not match.
>=20
> How can it find 2 matches and then claim that each of them aren't
> there?=20
>=20
> Perl 5.8.6 Mac OS X 10.3.8
I am running AS 5.8.3 build 809.

Here is the script I ran and it worked:
#!perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
my $content =3D <<'MYCONTENT';
[table]  1212312321 [/table]
[table]   123213312 [/table]

MYCONTENT

my @tables =3D $content =3D~ m#\[table\](.*?)\[/table\]#g;
print Dumper(\@tables);
=20
foreach (@tables) {
my $table =3D $_;
if ($content =3D~ m#$table#) {print "yes old table is there!\n";}
}

Output:
$VAR1 =3D [
'  1212312321 ',
'   123213312 '
];
yes old table is there!
yes old table is there!

Wags ;)
>=20
> Thanks
>=20
> bemused Angie



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Angie Ahl wrote:
> The following regex is failing strangely:
>
> 	my @tables = $content =~ m#\[table\](.*?)\[/table\]#g;
> 	foreach (@tables) {
> 		my $table = $_;
> 		if ($content =~ m#$table#) {print "yes old table is there!\n";}
> 	}
>
> @tables contains 2 items (correctly) but seaching for each item in
> $content does not match.
>
> How can it find 2 matches and then claim that each of them aren't there?
>
> Perl 5.8.6 Mac OS X 10.3.8
>
> Thanks
>
> bemused Angie

I rather suspect that either $content or $table does not contain
what you think it does.

After substituting in some junk values, it works as expected for me.

my $content = '[table]one[/table]l;sjkdnf[table]two[/table]';
my @tables = $content =~ m#\[table\](.*?)\[/table\]#g;
foreach (@tables) {
my $table = $_;
print "$table - ";
if ($content =~ m#$table#) {print "yes old table is there!\n";}
}

Perl 5.8.6, Win2k

On 4/19/05, angie ahl wrote:
> The following regex is failing strangely:
>=20
>         my @tables =3D $content =3D~ m#\[table\](.*?)\[/table\]#g;
>         foreach (@tables) {
>                 my $table =3D $_;
>                 if ($content =3D~ m#$table#) {print "yes old table is the=
re!\n";}
>         }
>=20
> @tables contains 2 items (correctly) but seaching for each item in
> $content does not match.
>=20
> How can it find 2 matches and then claim that each of them aren't there?
>=20
> Perl 5.8.6 Mac OS X 10.3.8
>=20
> Thanks
>=20
> bemused Angie
>=20

Metachars in the results perhaps? Have you tried dumping @tables using
Data::Dumper and looking at the results?
Try using quotemeta (http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/quotemeta.html):
my $table =3D quotemeta;

HTH,
--=20
Offer Kaye

Thanks

I know that there are metachars in the result. non printing chars that
I need to leave there until a later part of the processing.

I don't get why this would affect the result though.

Cheers

Angie

> On 4/19/05, angie ahl wrote: 
here!\n";} 
? 
>
> Metachars in the results perhaps? Have you tried dumping @tables using
> Data::Dumper and looking at the results?
> Try using quotemeta (http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/quotemeta.html):
> my $table =3D quotemeta;
>
> HTH,
> --
> Offer Kaye
>
> --
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>
>

angie ahl wrote:
> 
>
> I know that there are metachars in the result. non printing chars that

Meta-characters are not non-printing characters.


> I need to leave there until a later part of the processing.
>
> I don't get why this would affect the result though.

Say that you have the string 'ab+c', that is the character 'a' followed by t
he
character 'b' followed by the character '+' followed by the character 'c'.  
If
you use that as a regular expression it says match an 'a' followed by one or
more 'b's followed by a 'c' so the regular expression 'ab+c' will match 'abc
'
or 'abbc' or 'abbbbbc' but it will never match the string 'ab+c'.


John
--
use Perl;
program
fulfillment