my @x; while (/(?=((\d)(\d)))/g) { push @x, $1 if $3 > $2; } #### my %ok; for my $i (1..8) { for my $j ($i+1..9) { $ok{"$i$j"} = 1; } } my @x = grep $ok{$_}, /(?=(\d\d))/g; #### use Regexp::List qw( ); my @ok; for my $i (1..8) { for my $j ($i+1..9) { push @ok, "$i$j"; } } my $re = Regexp::List->new()->list2re(@ok); my @x = /(?=($re))/g; #### my @x; push @x, $1 while /(?=((\d)(\d)(?(?{ $3 <= $2 })(?!))))/g;