my @letters = qw(a b c d e); #'a'..'e' also works,
                             #but I didn't want to add
                             #a red herring ;-)
print '  $_ |  $r |  $.'."\n";

for (@letters) {
	if(my $r = /a/../e/) {
		printf "%4s |%4s |%4s\n", $_, $r, $.;
	}

	$.++;	# ok, this is silly
		# but I'm making a point ;-)
}

##</code><code>##

  $_ |  $r |  $.
   a |   1 |
   b |   2 |   1
   c |   3 |   2
   d |   4 |   3
   e | 5E0 |   4