use strict;
my $str = 'This is a test Picasso, Pablo bla
This is a test after Pablo Picasso (d\'apres)';
my $regex = qr/(\bafter[\s_:.,()-]+|\bnach[\s_:.,()-]+|\bd'apres[\s_:.,()-]+|\bd´apres[\s_:.,()-]+|\bCircle of[\s_:.,()-]+)*(Pablo[\s_:.,()-]+Picasso|Picasso[\s_:.,()-]+Pablo)([\s_:.,()-]+Nachfolge\b|[\s_:.,()-]+Nachfolger\b|[\s_:.,()-]+Nachfolgerin\b|[\s_:.,()-]+Werkstatt\b|[\s_:.,()-]+Umkreis\b|[\s_:.,()-]+d'apres\b|[\s_:.,()-]+d´apres\b|[\s_:.,()-]+Circle of\b)*/uimp;
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