Regexp: difference between sed and Perl

matiasar · 10-15-2009, 10:02 AM

I'm trying to use a regexp to remove white spaces where there are more than 2 spaces and leave just one.

I'm testing with sed and this regexp works ok:

Code:

sed -e 's/\s\{2,\}/ /g' teste2.txt

But when I try to use the same regexp in a perl script:

Code:

$line=~s/\s\{2,\}/ /g;

Has no results. It leaves the spaces without removing where there are more than 2 white spaces.

This kind of regexp should be coded different in perl?

Thanks,
Matías

Telemachos · 10-15-2009, 10:15 AM

You don't want to escape the brackets in Perl. By escaping them, you are searching for literally "a space, followed by a bracket, followed by a two, followed by a comma, etc."

Try this:

Code:

$line =~ s/\s{2,}/ /g;

For a friendly tutorial on regular expressions in Perl, start with perldoc perlrequick.

matiasar · 10-15-2009, 11:03 AM

Telemachos,

Thanks a lot for your response. It worked wonderfully!
And thanks for the link too, it'll be usefull.

Regards,
Matías