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From: PerlFAQ Server on 10 Jun 2010 18:00 This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq6.pod, which comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org . -------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.12: Can I use Perl regular expressions to match balanced text? (contributed by brian d foy) Your first try should probably be the "Text::Balanced" module, which is in the Perl standard library since Perl 5.8. It has a variety of functions to deal with tricky text. The "Regexp::Common" module can also help by providing canned patterns you can use. As of Perl 5.10, you can match balanced text with regular expressions using recursive patterns. Before Perl 5.10, you had to resort to various tricks such as using Perl code in "(??{})" sequences. Here's an example using a recursive regular expression. The goal is to capture all of the text within angle brackets, including the text in nested angle brackets. This sample text has two "major" groups: a group with one level of nesting and a group with two levels of nesting. There are five total groups in angle brackets: I have some <brackets in <nested brackets> > and <another group <nested once <nested twice> > > and that's it. The regular expression to match the balanced text uses two new (to Perl 5.10) regular expression features. These are covered in perlre and this example is a modified version of one in that documentation. First, adding the new possessive "+" to any quantifier finds the longest match and does not backtrack. That's important since you want to handle any angle brackets through the recursion, not backtracking. The group "[^<>]++" finds one or more non-angle brackets without backtracking. Second, the new "(?PARNO)" refers to the sub-pattern in the particular capture buffer given by "PARNO". In the following regex, the first capture buffer finds (and remembers) the balanced text, and you need that same pattern within the first buffer to get past the nested text. That's the recursive part. The "(?1)" uses the pattern in the outer capture buffer as an independent part of the regex. Putting it all together, you have: #!/usr/local/bin/perl5.10.0 my $string =<<"HERE"; I have some <brackets in <nested brackets> > and <another group <nested once <nested twice> > > and that's it. HERE my @groups = $string =~ m/ ( # start of capture buffer 1 < # match an opening angle bracket (?: [^<>]++ # one or more non angle brackets, non backtracking | (?1) # found < or >, so recurse to capture buffer 1 )* > # match a closing angle bracket ) # end of capture buffer 1 /xg; $" = "\n\t"; print "Found:\n\t(a)groups\n"; The output shows that Perl found the two major groups: Found: <brackets in <nested brackets> > <another group <nested once <nested twice> > > With a little extra work, you can get the all of the groups in angle brackets even if they are in other angle brackets too. Each time you get a balanced match, remove its outer delimiter (that's the one you just matched so don't match it again) and add it to a queue of strings to process. Keep doing that until you get no matches: #!/usr/local/bin/perl5.10.0 my @queue =<<"HERE"; I have some <brackets in <nested brackets> > and <another group <nested once <nested twice> > > and that's it. HERE my $regex = qr/ ( # start of bracket 1 < # match an opening angle bracket (?: [^<>]++ # one or more non angle brackets, non backtracking | (?1) # recurse to bracket 1 )* > # match a closing angle bracket ) # end of bracket 1 /x; $" = "\n\t"; while( @queue ) { my $string = shift @queue; my @groups = $string =~ m/$regex/g; print "Found:\n\t(a)groups\n\n" if @groups; unshift @queue, map { s/^<//; s/>$//; $_ } @groups; } The output shows all of the groups. The outermost matches show up first and the nested matches so up later: Found: <brackets in <nested brackets> > <another group <nested once <nested twice> > > Found: <nested brackets> Found: <nested once <nested twice> > Found: <nested twice> -------------------------------------------------------------------- The perlfaq-workers, a group of volunteers, maintain the perlfaq. They are not necessarily experts in every domain where Perl might show up, so please include as much information as possible and relevant in any corrections. The perlfaq-workers also don't have access to every operating system or platform, so please include relevant details for corrections to examples that do not work on particular platforms. Working code is greatly appreciated. If you'd like to help maintain the perlfaq, see the details in perlfaq.pod. |