From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2009-01-20T06:53:34+09:00
Subject: Re: Regular Expression {m,n}

On 19.01.2009 21:45, Mmcolli00 Mom wrote:
> File.open("patientrecords.txt", 'r') do |p|
>   if p.gets =~ /%{2,3}PersonID/   then
>    puts "PersonID exist twice"

That output would be wrong, even if your matching would work the way you 
want it to.

>   end
>  end
> 
> This is supposed to tell me if there a line in my text file that
> contains 'PersonID' at least 2 times and at most 3 times.

It won't work.  {m,n} needs to be placed *after* the bit you want to 
repeat.  Also, it will match only immediate repetition unless you take 
measures to avoid that.

Having said that using scan(/PersonID/).size is probably simpler...

> I have been
> playing with regular expressions and thinking {m,n} would help with
> this. This snippet is used to show me if it will actually work. (Some
> lines contain PersonID only once, I do not want to use those lines)

I can't seem to find a question in your posting...

Cheers

	robert

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end