c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le
"my @test = qw(RC1XY  RS);
 ;;
 for my $s (@test) {
   printf qq{'$s' -> };
   my ($p_r, $d1, $p_mc, $p_new_mc) = $s =~ m{
     ([[:upper:]]+) (?: (\d+) ([[:upper:]]) ([[:upper:]]))?
     }xms;
   dd $p_r, $d1, $p_mc, $p_new_mc;
   }
"
'RC1XY' -> ("RC", 1, "X", "Y")

'RS' -> ("RS", undef, undef, undef)

##</code><code>##

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le
"my @test = qw(RC1XY  RS);
 ;;
 for my $s (@test) {
   printf qq{'$s' -> };
   my ($p_r, $d1, $p_mc, $p_new_mc) = $s =~ m{
     ([[:upper:]]+) (\d*) ([[:upper:]]?) ([[:upper:]]?)
     }xms;
   dd $p_r, $d1, $p_mc, $p_new_mc;
   }
"
'RC1XY' -> ("RC", 1, "X", "Y")

'RS' -> ("RS", "", "", "")