Is this the right way?

TITS (Try It To See):

use strict;
use warnings;

for my $vmstr ("0", "01", "00", "000", "1", "10") {
    my ($digits) = "-$vmstr" =~ /-(\d+)$/;

    print "'$vmstr': \$digits '$digits'\n";
}
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Prints:

'0': $digits '0'
'01': $digits '01'
'00': $digits '00'
'000': $digits '000'
'1': $digits '1'
'10': $digits '10'
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which is not what I understood you to want. Try adjusting the match to /-0*(\d+)$/.

Optimising for fewest key strokes only makes sense transmitting to Pluto or beyond

should I modify ...
Is this the right way? ...l

The reason that your "should I modify" post didn't get a reply is because you are the only one who knows for sure whether it's right. This is your code, and your problem; only you can know whether a given set of code "works" for your desired results. The monks have handed you lots of code. Then hippo decided you were ready to adapt the given solutions on your own, because it was a very simple change. You actually came up with a plausible answer... but until you try it and determine whether or not it works for your situation, you will never know whether it really works or not; and other than you telling us that "it works", we will never know whether it is the right way for you°. (By the way: trying it yourself would have been a lot faster than asking for confirmation then waiting 4 hours and asking again for confirmation.)

In case my "plausible" wasn't sufficient for you, and you for some reason need the warm, fuzzy feelings generated by someone else telling you that it looks right: to me, it looks like it will probably work for you. But I haven't participated in this conversation prior to this post, and I haven't run any of the code involved, so I am not the ultimate arbiter of whether it's the "right" way. TIMTOWTDI

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edit: °: well, we could try it, and see whether it "works" based on our understanding of your desires. But that still wouldn't tell us whether it meets your needs or not, because we are not you.