Extended Format: /x

• /x lets you write regexes more readably.

  • White space is ignored. (Use \s)

  • #-style comments are allowed

• Extended and very practical example coming up later...

• Caution: Unescaped / will still terminate the regex, even if it's in a comment!

        $x =~ /\d+      # numerator
               $FRAC    # FRAC matches either a / or a : symbol
               \d+      # denominator
              /x;

• Perl sees the / in the 'comment' before it sees the /x

  • It thinks that the / ends the regex

  • Confusion ensues

  • Perl 6 will fix this: modifiers precede the pattern instead of following it

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Copyright © 2002 M. J. Dominus