Text::ParseWords(Perl Programmers Reference GuText::ParseWords(3)NAMEText::ParseWords - parse text into an array of tokens or
array of arrays
SYNOPSIS
use Text::ParseWords;
@lists = &nested_quotewords($delim, $keep, @lines);
@words = "ewords($delim, $keep, @lines);
@words = &shellwords(@lines);
@words = &parse_line($delim, $keep, $line);
@words = &old_shellwords(@lines); # DEPRECATED!
DESCRIPTION
The &nested_quotewords() and "ewords() functions
accept a delimiter (which can be a regular expression) and
a list of lines and then breaks those lines up into a list
of words ignoring delimiters that appear inside quotes.
"ewords() returns all of the tokens in a single long
list, while &nested_quotewords() returns a list of token
lists corresponding to the elements of @lines.
&parse_line() does tokenizing on a single string. The
&*quotewords() functions simply call &parse_lines(), so if
you're only splitting one line you can call &parse_lines()
directly and save a function call.
The $keep argument is a boolean flag. If true, then the
tokens are split on the specified delimiter, but all other
characters (quotes, backslashes, etc.) are kept in the
tokens. If $keep is false then the &*quotewords()
functions remove all quotes and backslashes that are not
themselves backslash-escaped or inside of single quotes
(i.e., "ewords() tries to interpret these characters
just like the Bourne shell). NB: these semantics are
significantly different from the original version of this
module shipped with Perl 5.000 through 5.004. As an
additional feature, $keep may be the keyword "delimiters"
which causes the functions to preserve the delimiters in
each string as tokens in the token lists, in addition to
preserving quote and backslash characters.
&shellwords() is written as a special case of
"ewords(), and it does token parsing with whitespace
as a delimiter-- similar to most Unix shells.
EXAMPLES
The sample program:
16/Sep/1999 perl 5.005, patch 03 1
Text::ParseWords(Perl Programmers Reference GuText::ParseWords(3)
use Text::ParseWords;
@words = "ewords('\s+', 0, q{this is "a test" of\ quotewords \"for you});
$i = 0;
foreach (@words) {
print "$i: <$_>\n";
$i++;
}
produces:
0: <this>
1: <is>
2: <a test>
3: <of quotewords>
4: <"for>
5: <you>
demonstrating:
0 a simple word
1 multiple spaces are skipped because of our $delim
2 use of quotes to include a space in a word
3 use of a backslash to include a space in a word
4 use of a backslash to remove the special meaning of a
double- quote
5 another simple word (note the lack of effect of the
backslashed double-quote)
Replacing "ewords('\s+', 0, q{this is...}) with
&shellwords(q{this is...}) is a simpler way to
accomplish the same thing.
AUTHORS
Maintainer is Hal Pomeranz <pomeranz@netcom.com>,
1994-1997 (Original author unknown). Much of the code for
&parse_line() (including the primary regexp) from Joerk
Behrends <jbehrends@multimediaproduzenten.de>.
Examples section another documentation provided by John
Heidemann <johnh@ISI.EDU>
Bug reports, patches, and nagging provided by lots of
folks-- thanks everybody! Special thanks to Michael
Schwern <schwern@envirolink.org> for assuring me that a
&nested_quotewords() would be useful, and to Jeff Friedl
<jfriedl@yahoo-inc.com> for telling me not to worry about
error-checking (sort of-- you had to be there).
16/Sep/1999 perl 5.005, patch 03 2
Text::ParseWords(Perl Programmers Reference GuText::ParseWords(3)16/Sep/1999 perl 5.005, patch 03 3
