[ale] VI vs perl RE question

[Joe Knapka]

Geoffrey wrote:

>Joe Knapka wrote:
>  
>
>>Jim wrote:
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>I'm trying to use vi to search for something enclosed in quotes, using 
>>>perl RE I get a hit with $var =~/"(.*?)"/;  But using the same re in vi 
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>So this is, "a quote, possibly followed by something, followed by 
>>another quote".
>>(The question mark is redundant, since * already means "0 or more 
>>occurrences".)
>>    
>>
>
>I would expect that the ? says 'at least one character.'
>  
>
In vi and [e]grep, "?" means "the preceding expression may or may not be 
present". It
Perl, it apparently means "don't be greedy", though it really surprises 
me that such a
fundamental piece of RE syntax would be different in Perl. So the ? in 
the original
(Perl) RE was not redundant; it accomplishes what [^"]* does in the 
non-Perl case:
stopping at the next quote encountered.

-- Joe