use strict;
my $string;
read(DATA,$string,7);
print "$string\n";

my $pattern = "AB";
print "pattern is $pattern\n";

my ($start,$middle,$end) = $string =~ /^(.*?)($pattern+)(.*?)$/g;
    
print "splitting\n";
print "start = $start\n";   #gets B
print "middle = $middle\n"; #gets AB
print "end = $end\n";       #gets ABBB


__DATA__
BABABBB