Question

I have the following code

my $content = $response->content;
$content =~ /username=([\s\S]+?)&/;
my $username = $1;
print $username; #Prints the text

lets say I want to do this again but for different text

for example

$content =~ /rank=([\s\S]+?)&/;
my $rank = $1;
print $rank; #Prints the username text

do I have to change $1 to something else?

Answer 1

my $content = $response->content;
$content =~ /username=([\s\S]+?)&/;
my $username = $1;
print $username; #Prints the text

$content =~ /rank=([\s\S]+?)&/;

#if the above regex does not match, $1 remains set to the previous $1

my $rank = $1;
print $rank; #Prints the username text

It would be safer something like:

if ($content =~ /rank=([\s\S]+?)&/){
    my $rank = $1;
}

Or, more elegantly:

my ($rank) = $content =~ /rank=([\s\S]+?)&/;
print "\n rank:$rank" if defined $rank; #Prints the username text