Question

I have a simple Perl regex that I need to save as a variable.

If I print it:

print($html_data  =~ m/<iframe id="pdfDocument" src=.(.*)pdf/g);

It prints what I want to save, but when trying to save it with:

$link = $html_data =~ m/<iframe id="pdfDocument" src=.(.*)pdf/g;

I get back a ‘1’ as the value of $link. I assume this is because it found ‘1’ match. But how do I save the content of the match instead?

Answer 1

The matched subexpressions of a pattern are saved in variables $1, $2, etc. You can also get the entire matched pattern ($&) but this is expensive and should be avoided.

The distinction in behavior here, by the way, is the result of scalar vs. list context; you should get to know them, how they differ, and how they affect the behavior of various Perl expressions.