Regular Expressions, Perl, everything but a /

xemous · 05-20-2006, 01:09 PM

Hi, got a question about regular expressions in perl.

I need to count how many slashes are in a string, so...

Code:

$path = /hi/you/crazy/.guy.**g/lol

I'll use this...

Code:

if ($path =~ m%^/.+/.+/.+/.+/.+$%) { 
print 'whoa!, that directory is five levels deep, It works! (not really, help) 
}

I can't find a simple to way to say ``any set of characters UNLESS it's a slash'', as the (.) counts everything, including slashes, and the /w doesn't account for other characters, ie: (*), and (.).

jim mcnamara · 05-20-2006, 01:30 PM

The ^(/).(/)?.(/)?.(/)?.$ construct will put / in $1, $2, $3 ... (if there is one) and so on. You have to start and end the regex with somecharacter other than a / -- eg, try #

This matches everything but a slash: [^/]

xemous · 05-20-2006, 02:09 PM

It works, thanks.

xemous · 05-20-2006, 03:32 PM

Is there anyway to count /'s in a string and store them in a scalar?

spirit receiver · 05-20-2006, 03:45 PM

At least you could use something like

Code:

$string =~ s/[^\/]//g;
print length( $string );

gilead · 05-20-2006, 04:11 PM

If all you want is the count and not to modify the original string, the following works:

Code:

$count = 0;
$count++ while $string =~ m|/|g;

jim mcnamara · 05-22-2006, 10:09 AM

Or:

Code:

        my $cnt = $mystring =~ tr|/||;
        print $cnt , "\n";

tr can be non-destructive.