$ perl -E 'my $re = qr{([0-6BS])}; say $re' (?^u:([0-6BS])) #### $ perl -E 'my $re = qr{([0-6BS])}; say ref($re)' Regexp #### $ perl -E 'my $re = qr{([0-6BS])}; my %x = ($re, 1); my @y = keys %x; say $y[0]' (?^u:([0-6BS])) #### $ perl -E 'my $re = qr{([0-6BS])}; my %x = ($re, 1); my @y = keys %x; say "|", ref($y[0]), "|"' || #### $ perl -E 'my $re = qr{([0-6BS])}; $_ = "B"; /$re/; say $1' B #### $ perl -E 'my $re = qr{([0-6BS])}; my %x = ($re, 1); my @y = keys %x; $_ = "B"; /$y[0]/; say $1' B