Question

I’m trying to insert a comment character into a string something similar to this:

-CreateVideoTracker VT1 'vt name' 

becomes

-CreateVideoTracker VT1 # 'vt name' 

The VT1 word can actually be anything, so I’m using the regex

$line =~ s/\-CreateVideoTracker \w/\-CreateVideoTracker \w # /g; 

which gives me the result:

-CreateVideoTracker w #T1 'vt name' 

Is there any way to do this with a single regex, or do I need to split up the string and insert the comment manually?

Answer 1

$line =~ s/^(\-CreateVideoTracker)\s+(\w+)/$1 $2 #/; 

The bracketed expressions (known as ‘capture buffers’) in the first half of the regexp are referenced as $1, $2. etc in the second half.