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From: jb3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon Allen Boone)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Perl-Users Digest #651
Message-ID: <QbqtQkK00j6991W1t2@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 11 Mar 91 14:41:52 GMT
References: <1991Mar9.230553.22037@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 29
In-Reply-To: <1991Mar9.230553.22037@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU>

> Excerpts from netnews.comp.lang.perl: 9-Mar-91 Re: Perl-Users Digest
> #651 Marc Horowitz@ATHENA.MIT (884)



> Ok, that explains it, but it doesn't excuse it.  Sometimes I want to
> match an expression complex enough (like Ed's example) that I need
> more than nine () to group everything.  In this case, perl should
> still work, and I would say that the regexp in an array context should
> contain as many elements as paren pairs, but that $1 .. $9 should
> contain the first nine () matches.

> Comments?

> 		Marc


we need another (what, ANOTHER?) "special variable" to hold the contents
of a regexp pattern - $1 .. $9 would, like Marc said, hold the first 9
()'s, but you could shift and unshift the variable to make $1 .. $9
change.

how about @PAT ? 

	@PAT  Contains the last pattern matched - $1 .. $9 contain the first
		nine ()'s in @PAT, $+ contains the last bracket matched by
		@PAT.

- jon -