if ($ARGV[0] !~ /(.).*(??{print "Searching for [^$1-z] starting at ",pos($ARGV[0]),"\n"; "[^$1-z]"})/ix) #### [sgifford@sglaptop sgifford]$ perl /tmp/t4 abcd Searching for [^a-z] starting at 4 Searching for [^a-z] starting at 3 Searching for [^a-z] starting at 2 Searching for [^a-z] starting at 1 Searching for [^b-z] starting at 4 Searching for [^b-z] starting at 3 Searching for [^b-z] starting at 2 Searching for [^c-z] starting at 4 Searching for [^c-z] starting at 3 Searching for [^d-z] starting at 4 alpha