asked on

PERL search-and-replace using variables [ s/$search/$replace/ ] and backreferences

I need to load a list of search-and-replace patterns (with backreferences) in from a config file and apply them to a series of strings. I can't figure out how to do a search-and-replace with backreferences using variables.

This is the RESULT i'm trying to achieve (shown first without using variables):

use strict;
my $string='foo1bar';
print "BEFORE: [$string]\n";
$string =~ s/(.*)\d/$1---/;
print "AFTER:  [$string]\n";

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which works perfectly:
BEFORE: [foo1bar]
AFTER: [foo---bar]

BUT, I need to achieve the same result using variables.
I tried the following:

use strict;
my $string='foo1bar';
my $search='(.*)\d';
my $replace='$1---';
print "BEFORE: [$string]\n";
$string =~ s/$search/$replace/;
print "AFTER:  [$string]\n";

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But that did not work as I hoped:
BEFORE: [foo1bar]
AFTER: [$1---bar]

I can't figure out how to get $1 to expand to the backreferenced value.
I tried playing with /e & /ee modifiers but those didn't work. Please help!

farzanj

Change
my $replace='$1---';
to
my $replace="$1---";

JonHodgson

ASKER

farazanj,

Thank you very much. You've gotten me closer to my ultimate solution. I didn't realize in this case there would be a difference between single & double quotes, as I assumed the variable substitution occurred at the time of assignment rather than at the time of evaluation.

I still need to achieve my ultimate goal of reading these patterns from a config file. It's behaving like my single-quote example and i'm not sure how to make it behave like your double-quote version:

use strict;
my %config;
open(CONFIG, "<subtest.cfg");
	# subtest.cfg contains: (whitespace is 2 tabs)
	# (.*)\d		$1---
	while(<CONFIG>){
		chomp;
		s/#.*//;	# No comments
		s/^\s+//;	# No leading whitespace
		s/\s+$//;	# No trailing whitespace
		next unless length;	# Skip blank lines
	
		my ($search,$replace) = split("\t\t",$_,2);
		$config{$search}=$replace;
	}
close(CONFIG);

my $string='foo1bar';
foreach my $search (keys %config) {
	my $replace=$config{$search};
	print "SEARCH: [$search]\n";
	print "REPLACE: [$replace]\n";
	print "BEFORE: [$string]\n";
	$string =~ s/$search/$replace/;
	print "AFTER:  [$string]\n\n";
}

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It's outputting incorrectly:
SEARCH: [(.*)\d]
REPLACE: [$1---]
BEFORE: [foo1bar]
AFTER: [$1---bar]

If I can get this to work this will solve my problem. Thanks.

farzanj

Need your input file(s).

JonHodgson

ASKER

farzanj,

My code example showed the content of my input file in the comment where I opened the file:
# subtest.cfg contains: (whitespace is 2 tabs)
# (.*)\d $1---

It's just:
(.*)\d<tab><tab>$1---

(That's the same search and replace as before, but with 2 tabs as the delimiter)

JonHodgson

ASKER

Here's the file in case that's easier for you.
subtest.cfg.txt

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

farzanj

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JonHodgson

ASKER

farzanj,

That worked! Before I close this out and assign you all the points, can you please briefly explain WHY your changes worked?

This will help me and others not have this issue in the future.

Thanks,

Jon

ozo

$replace='"$1---"';
$string =~ s/$search/$replace/ee ;

JonHodgson

ASKER

Hi ozo/farzanj,

I wasn't asking which lines he made changes on. I already figured that out with diff.

I mean an EXPLANATION, in words, as to why that syntax was needed. I'm trying to LEARN why this worked rather than just cut-and-pasting the answer.

Thanks

SOLUTION

farzanj

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JonHodgson

ASKER

Farzanj,

Thanks so much for your solution and the explanation. I've awarded you all the points.

- Jon