sub foo { my $window = "a b X20 c X5 d e X17 X12"; my @o; my $push_o = sub { push @o, @_ }; print "subN=$push_o\n"; my @m = ($window =~ m/(X\d+(?{print "sub1=$push_o\n"; $push_o->(pos)}))/g); print join(" ", "Matches:", @m, "\n"); print join(" ", "Offsets:", @o, "\n\n"); }