use strict;
my $str = '"Dr. Drake Cohen" would become "Drake Cohen"
"Dr Drake Cohen" would become "Drake Cohen"
"Drake Cohen" would become "Drake Cohen"
"Rachel Smith" would become "Rachel Smith"
"Dr. Rachel Smith" would become "Rachel Smith"
alexandr the great';
my $regex = qr/\bdr[.\s]\s?/ip;
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