c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "for my $one ($1) { $_ = 'xx333333xx'; for $1 (666) { print qq{A: '$one' $-[1] $+[1] '$2'} if /(333)\1(xx)/; print qq{\$1 '$1'}; } } ;; print qq{B: '$1' $-[1] $+[1] '$2'} if /(\d\d\d)\1(\D\D)/; " A: '333' 2 5 'xx' $1 '666' B: '333' 2 5 'xx'