{ my @inserts; sub gf { @inserts = (); my $ins1 = '4 A -4 C -4 B 1 D'; print "\nat the beginning: " . \@inserts . "\n"; print $ins1, "\n"; my $re = qr/[\d+-]+(?: \w ([\d+-]+)(?{print \@inserts, "\n"; push @inserts, $1}))*/; $ins1 =~ /$re/g; print "\n" . join ' ', @inserts; } }