Text::ParseWords(Perl Programmers Reference GText::ParseWords(3p)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. "e-
words() 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_line(), so if you're only splitting one
line you can call &parse_line() 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., "e-
words() tries to interpret these characters just like the
Bourne shell). NB: these semantics are significantly dif-
ferent 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:
perl v5.8.8 2005-02-05 1
Text::ParseWords(Perl Programmers Reference GText::ParseWords(3p)
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 accom-
plish 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).
perl v5.8.8 2005-02-05 2
