I'd say use Hippo's template of an SSCCE
Re: Matching a string in a parenthesized block (regex help) to write some tests for
- what you want and
- what you don't want.
This would certainly be beneficial for you too.
Other than that, |-or conditions with swallowing can prioritize areas, like "quoted" ones.
demo
DB<132> $_ = 'phrase. "phrase1.phrase2" phrase. phrase'
0 'phrase. "phrase1.phrase2" phrase. phrase'
DB<133> split /(".*?"|\.)/
0 'phrase'
1 '.'
2 ' '
3 '"phrase1.phrase2"'
4 ' phrase'
5 '.'
6 ' phrase'
DB<134>
