while () { chomp; print "\nTesting '$_'\n"; /^(?:(?:(\d+)c\s*)|(?:(\d+)w\s*)|(?:(\d+)r\s*))+/i; print "Without \\s* : 1='$1', 2='$2', 3='$3'\n"; /^(?:(?:(\d+)\s*c\s*)|(?:(\d+)\s*w\s*)|(?:(\d+)\s*r\s*))+/i; print "With \\s* : 1='$1', 2='$2', 3='$3'\n"; }