use strict;
my $str = '<inventor sequence="001" designation="us-only"><addressbook><last-name>Li</last-name><first-name>Shuo</first-name><address><city>Beijing</city><country>CN</country></address></addressbook></inventor><inventor sequence="002" designation="us-only"><addressbook><last-name>Liu</last-name><first-name>Xin Peng</first-name><address><city>Beijing</city><country>CN</country></address></addressbook></inventor><inventor sequence="003" designation="us-only"><addressbook><last-name>Sun</last-name><first-name>Sheng Yan</first-name><address><city>Beijing</city><country>CN</country></address></addressbook></inventor><inventor sequence="004" designation="us-only"><addressbook><last-name>Wang</last-name><first-name>Hua</first-name><address><city>Littleton</city><state>MA</state><country>US</country></address></addressbook></inventor><inventor sequence="005" designation="us-only"><addressbook><last-name>Wang</last-name><first-name>Jun</first-name><address><city>Littleton</city><state>MA</state><country>US</country></address></addressbook></inventor>';
my $regex = qr/<inventor sequence="[^"]*" designation="[^"]*">(.*?)<\/inventor>/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