$pat1 = "(foo)"; $pat2 = "(bar)"; /$pat1/ && /$pat2/; /^(?=.*?$pat1)(?=.*?$pat2)/; $pat1 = "(foo)"; $pat2 = "(baz)"; /$pat1/ && /$pat2/; /^(?=.*?$pat1)(?=.*?$pat2)/;