use strict;
my $str = '^^010914^1640^020914^0745^MIA^^FRA^1^LH^LH^^463^388^S^M^^LCA^Y^2^^020914^1230^020914^1320^FRA^1^BSL^^LH^CL^^1204^E90^S^M^^LCA^Y^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1305^LX^3^^120914^1040^120914^1156^ZDH^^ZRH^^LX^LX^^7409^TRN^S^M^^LCA^Y^4^^120914^1320^120914^1745^ZRH^^MIA^^LX^LX^^64^333^S^M^^LCA^Y^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^';
my $regex = qr/([0-9]{6}\^[0-9]{4})\^#departure time(local time)
([0-9]{6}\^[0-9]{4})\^#arrival time(local time)
(\b[A-Z]{3}\b)\^.*?\^(\b[A-Z]{3}\b)#dep and dst airports
\^.*?\^[A-Z0-9]{2}\^([A-Z0-9]{2}\^\^[0-9]+)#flight number
\^.*?#
\^(.?)\^\^#flight class, ex. M=economy class/xp;
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