$s = "Test-01-xxx"; # Method 1, possibly slow if ($s =~ /-(\d\d)-/g) { print "Pos: $pos - ", pos( $s )- length( $& ), "\n"; } # Method 2, possibly slow if ($s =~ /(-(\d\d)-)/g) { print "Pos: $pos - ", pos( $s )- length( $1 ), "\n"; }