NAME
    Regexp::NamedCaptures - Saves capture results to your own variables

VERSION
    Version 0.01

SYNOPSIS
     use Regexp::NamedCaptures;
     my ( $name, $title, $first, $last );
     /(?<\$name>(?<\$title>Mr\.|Ms\.) (?<\$first>\w+) (?<\$last>\w+))/;
 
     # is the same as
 
     my ( $name, $title, $first, $last )
         = /((Mr\.|Ms\.) (\w+) (\w+))/;

     # use re 'eval' when interpolating
     use Regexp::NamedCaptures;
     use re 'eval';
     /(?<\$something>$pattern)/

DESCRIPTION
    This highly experimental module implements named captures. When your
    regular expression captures something, you can have it automatically
    copied out to the right location. This is an improvement over normal
    perl because now you don't have to deal with positional captures. When
    your expression is complex and there are multiple or nested captures it
    really helps to not have to track what number you're supposed to find
    your data in.

NAMED CAPTURE SYNTAX
    I have borrowed the syntax from .Net. I'm told that each of the
    following forms are equivalent so I've treated them identically.

     (?< name >pattern)
     (?' name 'pattern)

    "name" should be a a piece of valid perl code. In a normal,
    interpolating regular expression, you would write "(?<\$something"...)
    if you wanted to have the result copied to the $something variable. That
    is, perl will interpolate your variables just like it always does.

    The value of name may be arbitrary perl code. It must be a valid lvalue.

    "pattern" is a normal pattern.

    The entire expression is rewritten as:

     (pattern)(?{ name = $^N })

FUNCTIONS
  $rewritten_regexp = convert( $original_regexp )
    This function does all the work of converting a regular expression
    containing named capture expressions into an expression that can be used
    by perl. You only need this if you're going to be creating regular
    expressions at runtime.

     use re 'eval';
     $re = Regexp::NamedCapture::convert '(?<$var>...)'
     $re = qr/$re/

     use re 'eval';
     $re = Regexp::NamedCapture::convert "(?'\$var'...)";

"use re 'eval'" AND SECURITY
    This module functions by inserting (?{ code }) blocks into your
    expression. As a security feature, perl does not allow new (?{ ... })
    blocks to be compiled once BEGIN-time has passed unless the programmer
    specifically lifts that restriction by including the "use re 'eval'"
    pragma.

    If you trust all of the expressions that you're interpolating, you can
    use this safely. If you are accepting regular expressions from sources
    you might not trust, you should not use "use re 'eval'".

    If you still want to use this module, see if you can push your regular
    expression compilation earlier.

    Consider these two examples:

     use re 'eval';
     $rx = qr/(?<\$name>$expr)/;

     BEGIN {
         $rx = qr/(?<\$name>$expr)/;
     }

    The first one requires the "use re 'eval'" pragma because the
    interpolation and compilation occurs at runtime. The second does not
    because it interpolated and compiled the pattern at BEGIN-time. It
    suffers the obvious drawback that you must have the value for $expr at
    BEGIN-time instead of runtime.

AUTHOR
    Joshua ben Jore, "<jjore@cpan.org>"

BUGS
    \Q escapes are completed ignored. If you try to use one to prevent
    something that looks like a named capture from being parsed as one, it
    won't work.

    Please report any bugs or feature requests to
    "bug-regexp-namedcaptures@rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
    <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Regexp-NamedCaptures>. I
    will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress
    on your bug as I make changes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    Jeffrey Friedl's book Mastering Regular Expressions for the original
    inspiration. perlre for making it possible. Minneapolis.pm for giving me
    a reason to create this. Tanktalus, Ctrl-z, and others of perlmonks.org

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
    Copyright 2005 Joshua ben Jore, all rights reserved.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.

