1/19 Perl god, please go to http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html
Go to "Quantifiers" and the greedy operator, such as
+?, *?, ??, {n,}?, {n,m}?
So I understand the greedy operator that does matching
based on having different choices (instead of the default
maximal munch). What about "{n}?" ? What are some
examples of using "{n}?" ?
\_ s{2,} will match "ssss" once. s{2,}? will match it twice.
\_ that is clear. s{n,} and s{n,m} will match between n to
m number of s. Traditionally regex is maximal munch.
However the "?" minimal munch operator such as s{n,m}?
will perform minimal munch.
My question is, if you have just s{n} and you match
exactly n number of s, then what is the point of the
minimal match, given that there is no choice?
\_ It's just for consistency. s{n} and s{n}? are identical.
\_ ^consistency^redundancy
^consistency^stupidity
Perl programmers are like Republicans-- righteous,
unapologetic, and incapable of seeing the point
of view from other languages.
\_ How would you design it? If s{2,3}? is legal but
s{2,2}? is an error, then s{$min,$max}? will fail
if $min and $max happen to be equal. That seems
suboptimal.
\_ "$_Wha???" lol |