use strict;
my $str = '209 016 - should be come up in search result and as 400013(space removed)
209016 - should also come up in search and unaltered as 209016
any numeric string more then 6 digits long should not come up in search eg 20901677,209016@223123, 29016,
';
my $regex = qr/\b(?<!@)\d(?:\s*\d){5}\b(?!@)/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