use strict;
my $str = '40 31 21N, 105 05 39.00W';
my $regex = qr/(?:90|(?:[0-8]{0,1}[0-9]))[°\s](?:[0-5]{0,1}[0-9])['\s](?:[0-5]{0,1}[0-9](?:[.,]\d{1,5})?)["\s]{0,1}[NS]\s?,?\s?(?:180|(?:1[0-7]{1}[0-9]{1})|(?:0?[0-9]{1}[0-9]{1})|(?:[0-9]{1}))[°\s](?:[0-5]{0,1}[0-9])['\s](?:[0-5]{0,1}[0-9](?:[.,]\d{1,5})?)["\s]{0,1}[EW]/p;
if ( $str =~ /$regex/g ) {
print "Whole match is ${^MATCH} and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[0] and \$+[0]\n";
# print "Capture Group 1 is $1 and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[1] and \$+[1]\n";
# print "Capture Group 2 is $2 ... and so on\n";
}
# ${^POSTMATCH} and ${^PREMATCH} are also available with the use of '/p'
# Named capture groups can be called via $+{name}
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html