From: Dave Burt <burtdav@...>
Date: 2004-05-14T22:18:56+09:00
Subject: Re: Regexp Error?

Perl and Javascript (MSIE) do it too, so I don't propose changing it, but it
seems a strange (wrong) behaviour.

I would have thought that the second match you refer to should have been
included in the first; that is, that the greedy match should match (and then
replace) the whole string, including the 0 characters between the last
character and the end of the string.

But apparently it's not like that.

"ts" <decoux@moulon.inra.fr> wrote in message
news:200405141224.i4ECOZo25483@moulon.inra.fr...
> >>>>> "R" == Robert Klemme <bob.news@gmx.net> writes:
>
> R> irb(main):025:0> "123-456".gsub(/.*$/, 'X')
> R> => "XX"
>
> R> Applying your explanation, one would have to say that "$" is matched
> R> twice.  IMHO this is not correct.  Or is there another explanation why
> R> this gsub happens to return "XX"?
>
>  This is the same explanation. Your regexp means match a string which is
at
>  the end (where end can be \n or the end of string, in this case)
>
>   * first match : "123-456"
>   * now it's at end
>   * it can match the empty string
>
>
>  $ is like ^ : it don't match a character but a position in the string
>  (sort of ...)
>
>
> Guy Decoux
>
>
>
>
>