On Wed, 29 Mar 2006 03:43:51 +0900, Wes Gamble <weyus / att.net> wrote:
> In my example, won't /^(?!xyz)/ also match
> 
> 29384723xyz02342
> 
> which is a little more than I want?

Uhm, maybe I've misunderstood (wouldn't be the first time) -- I thought you
wanted to match strings that did not begin with 'xyz' ... and as far as I
can tell, "29384723xyz02342" does not start with 'xyz'. 

  while DATA.gets
    print if ~/^(?!xyz)/
  end
  __END__
  xyefoo
  xyzpfoo
  asdfsdf
  1230xyzasdf

produces:

  xyefoo
  asdfsdf
  1230xyzasdf


puzzled,
andrew

-- 
Andrew L. Johnson   http://www.siaris.net/
      People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is 
      also a confession of character. 
          -- Ralph Waldo Emerson; The Conduct of Life, 1860