use strict;
my $str = 'Villa-Levski
Villa:Levski
Villa Levski
Villa123-Levski123
Villa123:Levski123
Villa123 Levski123
Villa - Levski
Villa : Levski
Villa Levski
Manchester United - Tottenham HotSpurt';
my $regex = qr/^[A-Za-z]+(?: [A-Za-z]+)* *[ -:] *[A-Za-z]+(?: [A-Za-z]+)*$/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