use strict;
my $str = 'set a [expr $sumy+1]
set b [[expr $sumy+1] [expr $sumy+2] [expr $sumy+3]]
set c [expr $sumy+[lindex $coords 1]]
set d [expr [lindex [$ret] 2] + $Alpha]
set e [string range $SECNAME 0 [expr [string first - $SECNAME] -1] ]
(\\[expr\\s+)([^}][^\\]]*)(\\])
';
my $regex = qr/(\[expr\s+)([^}][^\]]*)(\])/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