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Text::ParseWords(3)


NAME

  Text::ParseWords - parse text into an array of tokens or array of arrays


SYNOPSIS

    use Text::ParseWords;
    @lists = &nested_quotewords($delim, $keep, @lines);
    @words = &quotewords($delim, $keep, @lines);
    @words = &shellwords(@lines);
    @words = &parse_line($delim, $keep, $line);
    @words = &old_shellwords(@lines); # DEPRECATED!


DESCRIPTION

  The &nested_quotewords() and &quotewords() functions accept a delimiter
  (which can be a regular expression) and a list of lines and then breaks
  those lines up into a list of words ignoring delimiters that appear inside
  quotes.  &quotewords() returns all of the tokens in a single long list,
  while &nested_quotewords() returns a list of token lists corresponding to
  the elements of @lines.  &parse_line() does tokenizing on a single string.
  The &*quotewords() functions simply call &parse_lines(), so if you're only
  splitting one line you can call &parse_lines() directly and save a function
  call.

  The $keep argument is a boolean flag.	 If true, then the tokens are split
  on the specified delimiter, but all other characters (quotes, backslashes,
  etc.) are kept in the tokens.	 If $keep is false then the &*quotewords()
  functions remove all quotes and backslashes that are not themselves
  backslash-escaped or inside of single quotes (i.e., &quotewords() tries to
  interpret these characters just like the Bourne shell).  NB: these
  semantics are significantly different from the original version of this
  module shipped with Perl 5.000 through 5.004.	 As an additional feature,
  $keep may be the keyword "delimiters" which causes the functions to
  preserve the delimiters in each string as tokens in the token lists, in
  addition to preserving quote and backslash characters.

  &shellwords() is written as a special case of &quotewords(), and it does
  token parsing with whitespace as a delimiter-- similar to most Unix shells.


EXAMPLES

  The sample program:

    use Text::ParseWords;
    @words = &quotewords('\s+', 0, q{this   is "a test" of\ quotewords \"for you});
    $i = 0;
    foreach (@words) {
	print "$i: <$_>\n";
	$i++;
    }

  produces:

    0: <this>
    1: <is>
    2: <a test>
    3: <of quotewords>
    4: <"for>
    5: <you>

  demonstrating:

  0   a simple word

  1   multiple spaces are skipped because of our $delim

  2   use of quotes to include a space in a word

  3   use of a backslash to include a space in a word

  4   use of a backslash to remove the special meaning of a double-quote

  5   another simple word (note the lack of effect of the backslashed
      double-quote)

  Replacing "&quotewords('\s+', 0, q{this   is...})" with "&shellwords(q{this
  is...})" is a simpler way to accomplish the same thing.


AUTHORS

  Maintainer is Hal Pomeranz <pomeranz@netcom.com>, 1994-1997 (Original
  author unknown).  Much of the code for &parse_line() (including the primary
  regexp) from Joerk Behrends <jbehrends@multimediaproduzenten.de>.

  Examples section another documentation provided by John Heidemann
  <johnh@ISI.EDU>

  Bug reports, patches, and nagging provided by lots of folks-- thanks
  everybody!  Special thanks to Michael Schwern <schwern@envirolink.org> for
  assuring me that a &nested_quotewords() would be useful, and to Jeff Friedl
  <jfriedl@yahoo-inc.com> for telling me not to worry about error-checking
  (sort of-- you had to be there).

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