Simple Regex Problem

[rfontaine]

hi,

I am looking for a regular expression that changes everything that is not alpha-numeric into just a dash, and also eliminates two or more dashes that are side by side so that there is only on.

something like xyz$%--123 abc
becomes just xyz-12e-abc

How might this be done?

Thank you in advance,
Ron

[coopster]

s/[^[:alnum:]]+-?¦--+/-/g

Don't forget to rekey the pipe symbol (¦) as the board breaks them.

[rfontaine]

Thank you very much Coopster! I'll give er a try :-)

[billegal]

Just curious, will this work the same too:

s/[^[:alnum:]]+/-/g

Basically, do you need anything in the pattern after the first plus sign?

I have been using the one in my post and wonder if it could break in some instances.

[coopster]

Just curious, will this work the same too

Yes, and it is a better expression. I sped through the message and wrote the regex verbatim without thinking too much as I hammered it down. I should have taken more time to optimize. Thanks, billegal ;)