Dot operator

A single dot (.) between two elements of a pattern indicates that the second element must be matched immediately after the first. The dot can be separated from the two elements with white space. However, in this case, the white space does not indicate an optional delimiter. If a delimiter exists in the input data, this delimiter must be included as part of either the first or second element when using the dot operator.

The following script matches an integer followed by a word. Only the integer is assigned to a variable and printed. In this example, the first two lines of data match this pattern. When a space is added between the integer and the word, as in line 3 of the data, the pattern fails.

ASL Script (sngldot_match.asl):
START {
 a:integer.word
 eol
}
do {
 print("Matched with ".a);
}
DEFAULT {
 ..eol
}
do {
 print("Failed match");
}
Input (sngldot_match.txt):
95627XFR
34036TFR
11536 GBH
Output:
$ sm_adapter --file=sngldot_match.txt sngldot_match.asl
Matched with 95627
Matched with 34036
Failed match
$