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Doing a basic "search and replace" on phone numbers

Hi, back with another basic regex question. I know just the rudiments of regex "search", but nothing about the "replace" aspect of it. Looked at an online tutorial regarding it:

http://www.regular-expressions.info/replacetutorial.html

... but found it quite hard to follow - offering very few examples. What I want to do isn't very complicated - basically just a phone number extraction/modification. For example:

Here is my source text string:

Bob, Smith, 256-871-9082

My regex search statement is : \d\d\d[\-]\d\d\d[\-]\d\d\d\d

After grabbing the matching phone number, I'd like to do a "replace" on the match to modify it to look like so:

+1-(256)*8719*082

Any suggestions please, on the regex "replace" statement I would need?

Thanks
Shawn

ozo

#!/usr/bin/perl
$_='Bob, Smith, 256-871-9082';
s/(\d\d\d)-(\d\d\d)-(\d)(\d\d\d)/+1-($1)*$2$3*$4/;
print;

shawn857

ASKER

Thanks ozo... is there any way to do this without using capture groups?

Thanks
Shawn

ozo

Yes, but not a simple way.

shawn857

ASKER

Oh, I see. Ozo, is the syntax used in the replace portion of a regex completely different than the syntax in the search portion?

Thanks
Shawn

ozo

In the replace portion, meta-characters lose their meaning.

shawn857

ASKER

OK, so the only syntax you have to work with is () (capture groups) and $ (dollar sign)... basically?

Shawn

ozo

In perl, $ for scalar interpolation retains its meaning. () for capture and $ for end of string lose their search meanings.

shawn857

ASKER

is that the only syntax used in replace?

ozo

In perl, the replacement is just a qquoted string.
Variables that happen to have certain values, like $1, $2, are interpolated like they would be in any other qquoted string.
(with the /e or /ee modifier, the string is also evaluated)

shawn857

ASKER

I don't know what you mean by interpolated Ozo. I'm not using Perl, I'm using a regex engine for Delphi programming language.

Thanks
Shawn

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ozo

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shawn857

ASKER

Thanks Ozo.

Cheers
Shawn

Doing a basic &quot;search and replace&quot; on phone numbers

Doing a basic "search and replace" on phone numbers