How to split a string containing a substring in it , using Perl?

Question

I have a string like this

"Name : somedata,123 Name : somedata1,234 Name :somedata3,345"

I need to split the data to the next line where ever "Name " occurs,

I need the final output like this :

Name :somedata,123
Name :somedata1,234
Name :somedata3,345

Please suggest. Thanks.

Have you looked at the docs for split in Perl? The function is literally named split. perldoc.perl.org/functions/split.html — Maurice Reeves
– Maurice Reeves, Commented Mar 21, 2014 at 15:51
I tried using split but its giving some errors all the time, may be the code is not correct. Split works well for ',' or '.' but for string i am not able to use it. — user3446683
– user3446683, Commented Mar 21, 2014 at 15:53
Can you post the rest of your code then? What have you tried so far? — Maurice Reeves
– Maurice Reeves, Commented Mar 21, 2014 at 15:53

choroba · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-21 15:59:13Z

4

You can use substitution with a look-behind and look-ahead: if there is a position preceded by anything (i.e. not the very beginning) followed by Name, you insert a newline:

my $string = "Name : somedata,123 Name : somedata1,234 Name :somedata3,345";
$string =~ s/(?<=.)(?=Name)/\n/g;

answered Mar 21, 2014 at 15:59

choroba

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1 Comment

user3446683 Over a year ago

Not sure i am using this properly or not, but the result is the same after using this as well... I tried several times but couldnt figure it out.

Miller · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-22 02:49:59Z

1

You can also solve this using split and a positive lookahead assertion:

$string = "Name : somedata,123 Name : somedata1,234 Name :somedata3,345";

my @strings = split /(?=Name)/, $string;

print "<$_>\n" for @strings;

Outputs:

<Name : somedata,123 >
<Name : somedata1,234 >
<Name :somedata3,345>

Note, if the pattern is of zero width, then split will not match at the beginning of a string. For this reason, we do not need the positive look behind assertion to ensure that we aren't at the start.

Also, if we wanted to get rid of the trailing spaces, we could do that in the split as well:

my @strings = split /\s*(?=Name)/, $string;

answered Mar 22, 2014 at 2:49

Miller

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