Matching Positions in strings 1

[fmuquartet]

Can someone help in understanding if it is possible to match a certain position in a string? Meaning, if there is a position in a string as shown below where you want to match what ever the value is for in that field.

#1.5#0017084C18E2009A00000005000073D700043CDE52C02A32#1192825536370#com.sap.portal.portal#sap.com/irj#com.sap.portal.portal#0175263#

In this case, I want to match on what ever appears where '0175263' is, since this value is dynamic and specific to the user logged into the system.

 

[ishnid]

Seems that you have fields delimited by # symbols. The 'split' function is ideal for this:

my $string = '#1.5#0017084C18E2009A00000005000073D700043CDE52C02A32#1192825536370#com.sap.portal.portal#sap.com/irj#com.sap.portal.portal#0175263#';

my @pieces = split '#', $string;

print "$pieces[7]\n";

 

[fmuquartet]

ishnid, thanks this certainly will and does work out, however I am need a regex that can do this if possible, do you know if this can be done via word-boundaries or somethings?

 

[ishnid]

Why a regexp? Unless I've misunderstood your question, you need whatever text appears between the 7th and 8th '#' character, right? If so, 'split' is the ideal way of achieving that. If not, what criteria are you using to identify what you want to match?

 

[fmuquartet]

Well, I am feeding data into an application that requires a definitive regex to match on this position, if I want to extract data in this field. I know it sounds weird, but that how the application works in order to report on this field.

 

[MillerH]

If regex you must have:

[url=http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/my.html][black][b]my[/b][/black][/url] [blue]$string[/blue] = [red]"[/red][purple]#1.5#0017084C18E2009A00000005000073D700043CDE52C02A32#1192825536370#com.sap.portal.portal#sap.com/irj#com.sap.portal.portal#0175263#[/purple][red]"[/red][red];[/red]

[gray][i]# Diagraming Record[/i][/gray]
[gray][i]# 1 - #1.5[/i][/gray]
[gray][i]# 2 - #0017084C18E2009A00000005000073D700043CDE52C02A32[/i][/gray]
[gray][i]# 3 - #1192825536370[/i][/gray]
[gray][i]# 4 - #com.sap.portal.portal[/i][/gray]
[gray][i]# 5 - #sap.com/irj[/i][/gray]
[gray][i]# 6 - #com.sap.portal.portal[/i][/gray]
[gray][i]# 7 - #0175263#[/i][/gray]

[olive][b]if[/b][/olive] [red]([/red][blue]$string[/blue] =~ [red]m{[/red][purple]^(?:#[^#]*){6}#([^#]*)[/purple][red]}[/red][red])[/red] [red]{[/red]
	[url=http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/print.html][black][b]print[/b][/black][/url] [red]"[/red][purple]Found '[blue]$1[/blue]'[purple][b]\n[/b][/purple][/purple][red]"[/red][red];[/red]
[red]}[/red] [olive][b]else[/b][/olive] [red]{[/red]
	[black][b]print[/b][/black] [red]"[/red][purple]No 7th record[purple][b]\n[/b][/purple][/purple][red]"[/red][red];[/red]
[red]}[/red]

- Miller

 

[ishnid]

Assuming the field is always going to be numeric characters and is the last field you have, this should do it:

my ( $matched ) = $string =~ /(\d+)(?=#$)/;

 

[fmuquartet]

ishnid,
Excellent, this field contains alpha-numeric characters as well, can we modify the regex for this?

 

[travs69]

change \d to \w

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Travis - Those who say it cannot be done are usually interrupted by someone else doing it; Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions;

 

[fmuquartet]

I do have a small problem that the regex is not picking up userids in for of frp100090 --is there something we can pass to it pick this up as well. I guess what I am asking if we can just say, matching on any alpha numeric character always in the 7th position of this string?

 

[PaulTEG]

split still does exactly what you need, why not just split the string and run a regex on the atom you want

--Paul

Paul
------------------------------------
Spend an hour a week on CPAN, helps cure all known programming ailments ;-)

 

[ishnid]

@Paul: He's not using Perl, just looking for regexp advice as the app he's using requires one.

@fmuquartet: did you make the change travs69 suggested?

 

[fmuquartet]

Everyone:
I found that '#[^#]+#[^#]+#[^#]+#[^#]+#[^#]+#[^#]+#([^#]+)' worked perfect for matching any alpha-numeric character that appeared in the 7th position, thanks everyone for their immediate input on this subject.

 

[ishnid]

MillerH's regexp from earlier does the same thing, but is shorter:

(?:#[^#]*){6}#([^#]*)

 

[fmuquartet]

Miller, now that is slick!