cc => sub { "this is an amazingly long string" =~ /\s([^l]*)l/ },
    ds => sub { "this is an amazingly long string" =~ /\s(.*?)l/ },

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my %data;
while(<DATA>){
    next unless m/^(.*?):(.*?):A/;       # non-greedy DS
    #next unless m/^([^:]*):([^:]*):A/;  # negated CC
    $data{$1} = $2;
}
while( my($k,$v) = each %data) {
    print "$k => $v\n";
}
__DATA__
abc:123:A:B
def:456:A:C
ghi:789:B:A
jkl:000:C:C

OUTPUT:
non-greedy DS:
    abc => 123
    def => 456
    ghi => 789:B

negated CC:
    abc => 123
    def => 456

##</code><code>##

[1]  well 'any character' except a newline,  unless /s