Splitting a string using a regex in Perl

Question

Why do these not behave identically?

perl -e '$x = "12aba34ba5"; $, = ", "; print split /[ab]/, $x;'
12, , , 34, , 5

perl -e '$x = "12aba34ba5"; $, = ", "; print split /(a|b)/, $x;'
12, a, , b, , a, 34, b, , a, 5

You're grouping in the second split. If you'd grouped /[ab]/ to be /([ab])/ you'd get both the same results. — Linus Kleen
– Linus Kleen, Commented Feb 3, 2011 at 10:47

Eugene Yarmash · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-03 10:56:48Z

2

This is documented in perldoc split:

If the PATTERN contains parentheses, additional list elements are created from each matching substring in the delimiter.

You can use (?:a|b) if you don't want to make backreferences.

edited Feb 3, 2011 at 10:56

answered Feb 3, 2011 at 10:48

Eugene Yarmash

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