asked on

perl: REGEX with a # in the pattern

Hi

Can anyone see why this errors on the regex?
I'm assuming it's to do with the '#'

use strict; use warnings;
use HTML::TreeBuilder;
use HTML::Element;

my $Base = "H:\\Path\\To\\";
my $Sub = "Sub Folder needs changing 123456 ";

my $body =HTML::TreeBuilder->new_from_file(*DATA);
my @DIVs =  $body -> look_down('_tag', 'div');  
for my $div (@DIVs){
    my $id = $div->attr('id');
    if((defined($id)) && ($id=~m/post_message_(\d.*)/)  ){
        my $PN = $1;
        print "ID = $id PN = $PN\n";
        my $Fold = $Base . $Sub . $PN;
        if(-d "$Fold"){
            print "HeLlo $Fold\n";
            }
        else{
              print "Can''t find $Fold\n";
            }
        
        my @font = $div-> look_down('_tag', 'font', 'color', 'red');
        for my $ft (@font){
        my $FText = $ft ->as_trimmed_text;

### this errors with Global symbol "$FTest" requires explicit package name at 
        if($FTest =~ m/(.*\#\d*)\s/  ){
            $FText =$1;
            } 
        print "FText = $FText\n";
            
        }
    }
}
  
print "Finished \n";

__DATA__
<div class="postbody">
<div class="postrow has_after_content">
<div class="content">
<div id="post_message_30829574">
<blockquote class="postcontent restore ">
<div style="text-align: center;"><i><b><font color="red"><font size="5">I want this #123456 but not this</font></font></b></i><br />
<br />

Open in new window

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

wilcoxon

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

trevor1940

ASKER

Thanx
Stupid Error i'd been starring at that for ages

tel2

Why do people use this:
if ($FText =~ m/.*(\#\d*)\s/) {
instead of doing it without the "m", like this?:
if ($FText =~ /.*(\#\d*)\s/) {

wilcoxon

I can't speak for anyone else but I almost always use m{...} for all of its advantages - only on very short temporary scripts do I use /.../ (and never m/.../).

trevor1940

ASKER

When first learning perl I was taught to use

$FText =~ m/.*(\#\d*)\s/

Open in new window

Now it's Habit

To m or not to m
Take this

my $text = "abc123def";

if($text =~ m{(\d*)})
OR
if($text =~ m/(\d*)/)
and
$text =~ s/\d*//;
or
$text =~ s{\d*}{};

Open in new window

To me using the 'm' I instantly know I'm matching and not typo

It comes down to personal preference I guess

tel2

OK, thanks Trev.