[Chicago-talk] string operator question.

[Kent Cowgill]

On Sep 12, 2009, at 9:42 AM, Richard Reina <richard at rushlogistics.com>  
wrote:

> I think I've got it now. I found this:
>
> $mystring = "[2004/04/13] The date of this article.";
> if($mystring =~ m/(\d+)/) {
>    print "The first number is $1.";
> }
>
> in a tutorial at http://www.somacon.com/p127.php
>
> and hacked it up so that my number gets the value of
>
> $number = $1
>
> and it works.
>
> However, I am confused by the representation of the scalar $1 I have  
> never seen that before.  Can someone explain $1.  Or is it something  
> that should not be explained but instead accepted at face value?

It says on that page, right above your example:
Prints "The first digit is 2." In order to designate a pattern for  
extraction, one places parenthesis around the pattern. If the pattern  
is matched, it is returned in the Perl special variable called $1. If  
there are multiple parenthesized expressions, then they will be in  
variables $1, $2, $3, etc.


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