#!perl -l use strict; use warnings; my $target = "cowboycaddog"; my @partsList = ('cowboy', 'cow', 'boy', 'cat', 'at', 'do', 'dog', 'cad(?=d)'); my %partsLu; ++$partsLu{$_} for @partsList; search ($target, {%partsLu}, []); sub search { my ($target, $partsLu, $used) = @_; unless (length $target) { print join ("-", @$used), "\n"; return; } for my $part (keys %$partsLu) { my $tmp = $target; my $re = qr/$part/; next unless $tmp=~s/^$re//; delete $partsLu->{$part} unless --$partsLu->{$part}; search ($tmp, {%$partsLu}, [@$used, $part]); } }