The pattern /\W(\w)+\W/ doesn't seem to match all the words on the line, just the ones in the middle. Why?
A1:
You're looking for word characters surrounded by nonword characters. The first word of the line ” assuming it starts at the beginning of the line ”doesn't have a nonword character in front of it. It doesn't have a character in front of it at all.
Q2:
What's the difference between m// and // ? I don't get it.
A2:
There's almost no difference at all. The only difference is that if you decide to specify a pattern delimiter other than / , you can do so only if you precede the pattern with an m ”for example, m!pattern! .
Q3:
I'm trying to verify that the user typed a number, but /\d*/ doesn't seem to work. It always returns true!
A3:
It returns true because a pattern using only the * quantifier always succeeds. It might match zero occurrences of \d , or it might match 2 or 100 or 1,000. Using /\d+/ ensures that you have at least one digit.
