Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!bionet!agate!e260-1a.berkeley.edu!c60b-1eq
From: c60b-1eq@e260-1a.berkeley.edu (Noam Mendelson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Would somebody please explain?
Message-ID: <1991Apr21.085916.28516@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 21 Apr 91 08:59:16 GMT
References: <1991Apr21.001702.5661@umbc3.umbc.edu>
Sender: root@agate.berkeley.edu (Charlie Root)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 18

In article <1991Apr21.001702.5661@umbc3.umbc.edu> rouben@math16.math.umbc.edu (Rouben Rostamian) writes:
>The command:
>    expr "Match" : "Ma"
>returns 2, as it should, since the first two characters of "Match" and "Ma"
>coincide.  Now, would somebody please explain why the command:
>    expr "match" : "ma"
>complains of a "syntax error"?

Remember that 'expr string : regexp' is a pseudonym for
'expr match string regexp'.  When you use "match" as the first argument,
expr expects two additional arguments (i.e., expr is interpreting the
"match" as a command).

-- 
+==========================================================================+
| Noam Mendelson   ..!ucbvax!web!c60b-1eq       | "I haven't lost my mind, |
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| University of California at Berkeley          |  somewhere."             |