use strict;
my $str = '#summertime swimming, running, tanning';
my $regex = qr/(?: # non-capturing group
\#summertime\b # match #summertime
| # or
\G(?<!^), # a comma not at the beginning of string and match it only if it's after the last match
) # closing the non-capturing group
\s* # some optional whitespaces
\K # forget what we matched so far
[^\s,]+ # match anything that's not a whitespace nor a comma one or more times/xp;
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