use strict;
my $str = ' https://vimeo.com/id1 //this line should get replaced with embed code by module
<a href="https://vimeo.com/id1"> Check out this video </a> //here, anything that is in href="" should not be replaced
on <a href="https://vimeo.com"> Vimeo </a>';
my $regex = qr~<a[^>]*>[^<]*</a>(*SKIP)(*FAIL)|https?:\S+~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