On 23 Aug 2001, Neale Pickett wrote:

> I contest that this is obvious.  s is a different string each time f is
> called, and so even though I do call Str.string_match multiple times,
> it's with a different s.  The manual for the Str libary says only that I
> must pass in the same s as was given to string_match, which implies that
> s is somehow keyed to its matches.  It sounds as though I shouldn't do
> the following:
> 
>   Str.string_match sep s 0;
>   Str.string_match sep s' 0;
>   print_string (Str.matched_group 1 s);
> 
> If this is the case, why does Str.matched_group even bother requiring
> the original string?

Indeed, you shouldn't.

The manual says:

<<
val matched_string: string -> string

matched_string s returns the substring of s that was matched by the latest
string_match, search_forward or search_backward. The user must make sure
that the parameter s is the same string that was passed to the matching or
searching function.
>>

Note the "latest".

The approach you suggest (that the library keeps a reference to
the last matched string) is acceptable. I guess it was not
implemented like that because this would prevent garbage collection
of the last matched string.  (maybe a "release_internal_buffer" function
would have been better)



-- 
 Alain

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