Perl::Critic::Policy::RegularExpressions::RequireExtendedFormatting - Always use the /x modifier with regular expressions.
This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution.
Extended regular expression formatting allows you mix whitespace and comments into the pattern, thus making them much more readable.
# Match a single-quoted string efficiently...
m{'[^\\']*(?:\\.[^\\']*)*'}; #Huh?
#Same thing with extended format...
m{ ' #an opening single quote
[^\\'] #any non-special chars (i.e. not backslash or single quote)
(?: #then all of...
\\ . # any explicitly backslashed char
[^\\']* # followed by an non-special chars
)* #...repeated zero or more times
' # a closing single quote
}x;
This Policy is not configurable except for the standard options.
For common regular expressions like e-mail addresses, phone numbers, dates, etc., have a look at the Regex::Common module. Also, be cautions about slapping modifier flags onto existing regular expressions, as they can drastically alter their meaning. See http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=484238 for an interesting discussion on the effects of blindly modifying regular expression flags.
Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer <thaljef@cpan.org>
Copyright (c) 2005-2008 Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of this license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.