use strict;
my $str = 'S:Y,P:Y,T:Y,A:Y
S:Y,P:Y,T:Y,A:Y,C:Y
S:Y,P:Y,T:Y,A:Y,C:Y,D:Y
A:Y
B:Y
D:Y,F:Y
All the following should never match. Cos 1 or more of them has :N.
S:Y,P:N,T:Y,A:Y
S:Y,P:Y,T:Y,A:Y,C:N
S:Y,P:Y,T:N,A:Y,C:N,D:Y
A:N
B:N
D:Y,F:N';
my $regex = qr/^[A-Z]:Y(,[A-Z]:Y)*$/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