use strict;
my $str = 'C42TMACXX:5:2316:15161:76101 163 1 @<@DFFADDDF:DD NH:i:1 HI:i:1 AS:i:200 nM:i:0
C42TMACXX:5:2316:15161:76101 83 1 CCCCCACDDDCB@B NH:i:1 HI:i:1 nM:i:1
C42TMACXX:5:1305:26011:74469 163 1 CCCFFFFFHHHHGJ NH:i:1 HI:i:1 AS:i:200 nM:i:0';
my $regex = qr/(?<=\d)\t(?=\d)|\t(?=[A-Z@<:]{14})|(?<=[A-Z@<:]{14})\t/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