use strict;
my $str = 'select ... from course
where ...
select ... from course c, marks s
where ....
select ... from #prefix#course c, marks m
where ...
select ... from #prefix#course c
where id = (select ... from student s where ...)';
my $regex = qr/(?:\bfrom\b(?:\s*#\w+(?:\s*\w+))*+|(?!^)\G),?\s*\K(?!(?:\w+ )?\bwhere\b)([\w ]+)(?=[^w]*(?:\bw(?!here\b)[^w]*)*\bwhere\b)/p;
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