c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "for my $s (qw(/key/42 /key/ /24-99 /24- /24 /key/42-99)) { my $parsed = my ($id) = grep defined, $s =~ m{ \A (?: /key/ (\d+) | / (\d+) - \d+) \z }xms; ;; print qq{'$s' -> }, $parsed ? qq{'$id'} : 'no id'; } " '/key/42' -> '42' '/key/' -> no id '/24-99' -> '24' '/24-' -> no id '/24' -> no id '/key/42-99' -> no id