use strict;
my $str = 'A1A 1AA
A1 1AA
A11 1AA
AA1 1AA
AA1A 1AA
AA11 1AA
A1A1AA
A11AA
A111AA
AA11AA
AA1A1AA
AA111AA
GIR 0AA
GIR0AA
a1a 1aa
a1 1aa
a11 1aa
aa1 1aa
aa1a 1aa
aa11 1aa
a1a1aa
a11aa
a111aa
aa11aa
aa1a1aa
aa111aa
gir 0aa
gir0aa';
my $regex = qr/^([A-Z][A-HJ-Y]?[0-9][A-Z0-9]? ?[0-9][A-Z]{2}|GIR ?0A{2})$/mip;
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