c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "use Data::Dump qw(pp); ;; my $re_str1 = '' . qr{ [0-6BS] }xms; print 'A: reference: ', ref $re_str1 if ref $re_str1; ;; my $str = 'ab3c64dSeBf'; my @captures = $str =~ m{ $re_str1 }xmsg; pp @captures; ;; my $re_str2 = '' . qr{ [a-f] }xms; print 'B: reference: ', ref $re_str2 if ref $re_str2; ;; my ($one, $two, $three) = $str =~ m{ ($re_str1) ($re_str2) ($re_str1) }xms; pp $one, $two, $three; " (3, 6, 4, "S", "B") (3, "c", 6)