I am aware of the method suggested by gaal. I usually do not use it because I almost always wrap the regex up with an 'if'. Throw in a my function and it starts to get messy.

# Ugly to me...
if (my ($this, $that, $some, $other) = $line =~ /(this).*(that).*(some
+).*(other)/) { 
  do_it();
};

# Better, I think...
if ($line =~ /(this).*(that).*(some).*(other)/) {
  my ($this, $that, $some, $other) = ($1, $2, $3, $4);
  do_it();
}
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This business doesn't DWYM:

my ( $this, $that, $some, $other, $foo, $bar, $baz ) = ( $1 .. $+ );
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The magical string incrementer is summoned to build a list of strings starting with the first capture, ending with the last.

YuckFoo