use strict;
my $str = 'parent[0].child
parent.child
parent.child1.list[0].child2
parent[500].child
parent0.child
par50ent.child
parent[0].child1[20].child[0]
parent..child
parent[].child
parent[1a].child
parent[a].child
.parent
parent.';
my $regex = qr/^\w+(?:\[\d+])?(?:\.\w+(?:\[\d+])?)*$/mp;
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