LPM: regexp question

[Rich Bowen]

llang at baywestpaper.com wrote:
> 
> The following works for what you're trying to do, but it assumes (maybe
> wrongly) that the words in your sentence are only separated by single
> spaces.  I guess you could remove multiple spaces easily enough before
> running it through.
> 
> #======================================
> $sent="This is a test of the first five words.";
> @s=split(/ /,$sent);
> pop(@s) while (@s>5);

Could potentially take a VERY long time. What if $sent is the complete
works of Shakespeare? Better to unshift for (1..5), I would think. Or
join @s[0..4]

> if (join(" ", at s) =~ /\bis|are\b/) {
>         print "Do stuff here...";
> }

Hmm. So combining yours and mine ...

if ( join " " (split (/\s+/, $sent, 5) ) ) =~ /\bis|are\b) {
	print "Do stuff here ... ";
}

:-)

Rich
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