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authorPaul Johnson <paul@pjcj.net>2007-02-11 00:10:31 +0100
committerH.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl>2007-02-12 17:46:46 +0000
commit4deaaa807edd632ac36b986b1b622f1f9fb7673f (patch)
tree1b715941862d191c4820367796f7ba1ba77938c2 /pod/perlre.pod
parent771ed9f1af61a5ebf694942246ba6240a0a817ce (diff)
downloadperl-4deaaa807edd632ac36b986b1b622f1f9fb7673f.tar.gz
Re: [PATCH - provisional] H. Merijn Brands idea of buffer numbering.
Message-ID: <20070210221031.GB31280@pjcj.net> p4raw-id: //depot/perl@30234
Diffstat (limited to 'pod/perlre.pod')
-rw-r--r--pod/perlre.pod29
1 files changed, 17 insertions, 12 deletions
diff --git a/pod/perlre.pod b/pod/perlre.pod
index 5287965fe3..aa861ae46e 100644
--- a/pod/perlre.pod
+++ b/pod/perlre.pod
@@ -716,18 +716,23 @@ X<(?|)> X<Branch reset>
This is the "branch reset" pattern, which has the special property
that the capture buffers are numbered from the same starting point
-in each branch.
-
-Normally capture buffers in a pattern are number sequentially, left
-to right in the pattern. Inside of this construct this behaviour is
-overriden so that the captures buffers in each branch share the same
-numbers. The numbering in each branch will be as normal, and any
-buffers following the use of this pattern will be numbered as though
-the construct contained only one branch, that being the one with the
-most capture buffers in it.
-
-Consider the following pattern. The numbers underneath are which
-buffer number the captured content will be stored in.
+in each branch. It is available starting from perl 5.10.
+
+Normally capture buffers in a pattern are numbered sequentially,
+from left to right. Inside this construct that behaviour is
+overridden so that the capture buffers are shared between all the
+branches and take their values from the branch that matched.
+
+The numbering within each branch will be as normal, and any buffers
+following this construct will be numbered as though the construct
+contained only one branch, that being the one with the most capture
+buffers in it.
+
+This construct will be useful when you want to capture one of a
+number of alternative matches.
+
+Consider the following pattern. The numbers underneath show in
+which buffer the captured content will be stored.
# before ---------------branch-reset----------- after