NAME Text::Balanced - Extract delimited text sequences from strings. SYNOPSIS use Text::Balanced qw ( extract_delimited extract_bracketed extract_quotelike extract_codeblock extract_variable extract_tagged extract_multiple gen_delimited_pat gen_extract_tagged ); # Extract the initial substring of $text that is delimited by # two (unescaped) instances of the first character in $delim. ($extracted, $remainder) = extract_delimited($text,$delim); # Extract the initial substring of $text that is bracketed # with a delimiter(s) specified by $delim (where the string # in $delim contains one or more of '(){}[]<>'). ($extracted, $remainder) = extract_bracketed($text,$delim); # Extract the initial substring of $text that is bounded by # an XML tag. ($extracted, $remainder) = extract_tagged($text); # Extract the initial substring of $text that is bounded by # a C...C pair. Don't allow nested C tags ($extracted, $remainder) = extract_tagged($text,"BEGIN","END",undef,{bad=>["BEGIN"]}); # Extract the initial substring of $text that represents a # Perl "quote or quote-like operation" ($extracted, $remainder) = extract_quotelike($text); # Extract the initial substring of $text that represents a block # of Perl code, bracketed by any of character(s) specified by $delim # (where the string $delim contains one or more of '(){}[]<>'). ($extracted, $remainder) = extract_codeblock($text,$delim); # Extract the initial substrings of $text that would be extracted by # one or more sequential applications of the specified functions # or regular expressions @extracted = extract_multiple($text, [ \&extract_bracketed, \&extract_quotelike, \&some_other_extractor_sub, qr/[xyz]*/, 'literal', ]); # Create a string representing an optimized pattern (a la Friedl) # that matches a substring delimited by any of the specified characters # (in this case: any type of quote or a slash) $patstring = gen_delimited_pat(q{'"`/}); # Generate a reference to an anonymous sub that is just like extract_tagged # but pre-compiled and optimized for a specific pair of tags, and # consequently much faster (i.e. 3 times faster). It uses qr// for better # performance on repeated calls. $extract_head = gen_extract_tagged('',''); ($extracted, $remainder) = $extract_head->($text); DESCRIPTION The various extract_... subroutines may be used to extract a delimited substring, possibly after skipping a specified prefix string. By default, that prefix is optional whitespace (/\s*/), but you can change it to whatever you wish (see below). The substring to be extracted must appear at the current pos location of the string's variable (or at index zero, if no pos position is defined). In other words, the extract_... subroutines *don't* extract the first occurrence of a substring anywhere in a string (like an unanchored regex would). Rather, they extract an occurrence of the substring appearing immediately at the current matching position in the string (like a \G-anchored regex would). INSTALLATION See the INSTALL file. COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 1997-2001 Damian Conway. All rights reserved. Copyright (C) 2009 Adam Kennedy. Copyright (C) 2015, 2020 Steve Hay. All rights reserved. LICENCE This distribution is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, i.e. under the terms of either the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License, as specified in the LICENCE file.