Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sdcrdcf.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!hao!hplabs!sdcrdcf!jonab From: jonab@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Jonathan Biggar) Newsgroups: net.bugs.v7,net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: awk vs. regular expressions starting with equal sign Message-ID: <1551@sdcrdcf.UUCP> Date: Thu, 13-Dec-84 15:21:31 EST Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.1551 Posted: Thu Dec 13 15:21:31 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 16-Dec-84 05:15:41 EST References: <4770@utzoo.UUCP> Reply-To: jonab@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Jonathan Biggar) Organization: System Development Corp. R+D, Santa Monica Lines: 12 Xref: watmath net.bugs.v7:177 net.unix-wizards:11068 In article <4770@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes: >There is a fundamental lexical ambiguity in awk: when you see "/=", >is this the divide-by-and-assign operator, or the start of a regular >expression which happens to begin with an equal sign? Awk thinks it >is the operator, which means you can't start a regular expression with >an equal sign, ever. To really write such a pattern, you have to resort >to schemes like "/.=/" or "/.*=/". How annoying. I can see no real fix. You should use "/[=]/", it is better. Jon Biggar {allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,sdccsu3}!sdcrdcf!jonab