use strict;
my $str = 'text <MIR-1> GGG-33 <EXP-V-3> text text <VACCVIRUS-PROP-1> some other.
text <MIR-1> text <ASSC-PHRASE-1> text <VACCVIRUS-PROP-1> some other <PATTERN-1> other.
';
my $regex = qr/.*<MIR-\d+>.*<(?:EXP-V|ASSC-PHRASE)-\d+>.*<VACCVIRUS-PROP-\d+>.*/ip;
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