How does this Perl code split a string into three-character chunks?

Question

I have a string that I need to split into three-character chunks. Googling found the following code, which works fine:

$input = "DEADBEEF";
@output = ();
my @output = ( $input =~ m/.{3}/g );
print $_."\n" foreach (@output);

I am a Perl beginner; can someone explain to me what the expression $input =~ m/.{3}/g does?

See http://stackoverflow.com/q/372370/133939 for better ways to do this. — Zaid, Sep 12 '12 at 18:41

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 12 '12 at 18:16

6

$input - scalar variable
=~     - apply regular expression
m      - Match (in list context so return a list of matched substrings)
/      - start of expression
.      - any character
{3}    - 3 times
/      - end of expression
g      - globally

answered Sep 12 '12 at 18:16

Quentin

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Thanks. I was a bit confused before. Now the regex explanation is clear. – I am Sep 12 '12 at 18:35
@Quentin be-a-u-ti-ful, bravo! – gaussblurinc Sep 13 '12 at 07:48

How does this Perl code split a string into three-character chunks?

1 Answers1