use strict;
my $str = 'GIR 0AA';
my $regex = qr/(GIR\s0AA)|((([A-PR-UWYZ][0-9][0-9]?)|(([A-PR-UWYZ][A-HK-Y][0-9](?<!(BR|FY|HA|HD|HG|HR|HS|HX|JE|LD|SM|SR|WC|WN|ZE)[0-9])[0-9])|([A-PR-UWYZ][A-HK-Y](?<!AB|LL|SO)[0-9])|(WC[0-9][A-Z])|(([A-PR-UWYZ][0-9][A-HJKPSTUW])|([A-PR-UWYZ][A-HK-Y][0-9][ABEHMNPRVWXY]))))\s[0-9][ABD-HJLNP-UW-Z]{2})/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