use strict;
my $str = ' sample 123 45 678 text
sample as123456 text
sample As123 456
sample bas123456 text NA
sample bas123 456ts text';
my $regex = qr/(?i)\b(?:(?P<g0>1[\W_]*2[\W_]*3[\W_]*4[\W_]*5[\W_]*6[\W_]*7[\W_]*8)|(?P<g1>a[\W_]*s[\W_]*1[\W_]*2[\W_]*3[\W_]*4[\W_]*5[\W_]*6))\b/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