Perl variable string search

ugenn · 05-07-2004, 12:46 AM

How do I search for the value in a string scalar in another string?

eg.

$foo = "Long long ago";
$bar = "ago";

How do I search for $bar in $foo? I can't just use a regexp s/ search because $bar might potentially contain regex metacharacters. Is there a any function which can escape the regexp in $bar or an alternate strstr like function which I can use?

eric.r.turner · 05-07-2004, 08:19 PM

You can use the index function. Looks like it doesn't care about or recognize regular expressions.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl

$foo = "Long Long ago";
$bar = "ago";

$position = index( $foo , $bar );

print( "Found in position $position\n" ) if $position >= 0;