The practical part of this posting doesn't seem to be addressed. In the example data, the second hyperlink (i.e., the <a href...>...</a>) is lost by the expression used. Here they are again:
<a href="http://www.perlmonks.org">Perlmonks</a> is a great site, so i
+s <a href="http://www.devshed.com">DevShed</a>
$string =~ m%<a href="([^"]+)">(.*)</a>%;
The original poster complains that when he uses (.*?) for the second parentheses, it doesn't work properly. What should be used is (.?) without the asterisk.
-Spenser
That's Spenser, with an "s" like the detective.