use strict;
my $str = 'J00*
J01*
J02*
J03*
J04*
J05*
J06*
J07*
J08*
J09*
J10*
J11*
J12*
J13*
J14*
J15*
J16*
J17*
J18*
J19*
J20*
J21*
J22*';
my $regex = qr/(.* ? J .*)/p;
if ( $str =~ /$regex/ ) {
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