use strict;
my $str = 'Valid examples:
Text Text 123 anything
Text Text, 123, anything
Text Text 123B anything
Text Text, 123B, anything
Text 123 anything
Text 123B anything
Text, 123, anything
Text, 123B, anything
987 123 anything
987 123B anything
987, 123, anything
987, 123B, anything
(Need to be) Invalid examples:
Text Text 456 123 anything
Text Text, 456, 123, anything
Text Text 456 123B anything
Text Text, 456, 123B, anything
Text 456 123 anything
Text 456 123B anything
Text, 456, 123, anything
Text, 456, 123B, anything
987 456 123 anything
987 456 123B anything
987, 456, 123, anything
987, 456, 123B, anything
';
my $regex = qr/^([\p{L}\p{N}\. ]+)(, ?| )([0-9-]+[a-z]?)(, ?| |$)(.*)/miup;
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