use strict;
my $str = 'userName eq "bjensen"
(userName eq "bjensen\\" and familyName co "O\'Malley")
(userName eq "bjensen" and familyName co "O\'Malley" AND userName eq "bjensen" AND familyName co "O\'Malley")';
my $regex = qr/(?i)[a-z][a-z0-9]*\s+(?:co|eq|gt)\s*"[^"]*"(?:\s+(?:and|or)\s+[a-z][a-z0-9]*\s+(?:co|eq|gt)\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