#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; use feature qw{ say }; $_ = 'abacad'; say "/a(.)/"; if (/a(.)/g) { say "\$1: $1"; say "\$&: $&"; } else { say 'No match'; } for my $try (1 .. 3) { say "//"; if (//g) { say "\$1: $1"; say "\$&: $&"; } else { say 'No match'; } }