Here's another way to look at things: instrument the regex with  (?{ code }) (see Extended Patterns) print points to learn by experimentation. I'm also taking the liberty of introducing some other new constructs: the  (?:pattern) non-capturing grouping (also see Extended Patterns); the  /x regex modifier (all the preceding links found in perlre); and the  @- (aka @LAST_MATCH_START) array regex special variable (see perlvar).

First look at TGA matching against a simplified string without a  \G anchor. Note that in contrast to some other code examples in this thread, the beginning offset of a match is reported.

c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $s = 'XXXxxxTGAxxTGAxxxxxxx';
 while ($s =~ m{ (?{ print qq{trying a match at offset }, pos $s }) (?
+: \w\w\w)*? (TGA) }xmsg) {
     print qq{matched TGA beginning at offset $-[1]};
     }
"
trying a match at offset 0
matched TGA beginning at offset 6
trying a match at offset 9
trying a match at offset 10
trying a match at offset 11
matched TGA beginning at offset 11
[download]

Now consider the effect of adding a  \G anchor assertion.

c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $s = 'XXXxxxTGAxxTGAxxxxxxx';
 while ($s =~ m{ \G (?{ print qq{trying a match at offset }, pos $s })
+ (?: \w\w\w)*? (TGA) }xmsg) {
     print qq{matched TGA beginning at offset $-[1]};
     }
"
trying a match at offset 0
matched TGA beginning at offset 6
trying a match at offset 9
[download]

Supplemental: We just got finished saying that in

my $s = 'XXXxxxTGAxxTGAxxxxxxx';
while ($s =~ m{ (?{ print qq{trying a match at offset }, pos $s }) (?:
+ \w\w\w)*? (TGA) }xmsg) {
  print qq{matched TGA beginning at offset $-[1]};
  }
[download]

c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $s = 'XXXxxxTGAxxTGAxxxxTGAxx';
 while ($s =~ m{ (?{ print qq{trying a match at offset }, pos $s }) (?
+: \w\w\w)*? (TGA) }xmsg) {
   print qq{matched TGA beginning at offset $-[1]};
   }
"
trying a match at offset 0
matched TGA beginning at offset 6
trying a match at offset 9
matched TGA beginning at offset 18
[download]

Hello AnomalousMonk, and thanks for the writeup.

Is your Supplemental question meant rhetorically? Because I, for one, would really like to know the answer! Consider the following:

19:40 >perl -wE "my $s = 'abCdefC'; while ($s =~ / (f)*? C /gx) { say 
+qq[match: $1, pos = ], pos $s; }"
Use of uninitialized value $1 in concatenation (.) or string at -e lin
+e 1.
match: , pos = 3
match: f, pos = 7

19:41 >
[download]

In this case the regex engine does not say: “Well, matching 1 f is better than matching none, so I’ll match the fC sequence first.” On the contrary, it first matches the C preceded by zero fs, as one might reasonably expect from the quantifier, *?, which says, “match this zero or more times in a non-greedy way.” I actually don’t understand how this can ever, logically, match with more than zero, since zero is possible and less greedy than 1??

But back to the OP, how does $dna =~ / (\w\w\w)*? TGA /gx differ logically from $s =~ / (f)*? C /gx? I can’t see a fundamental distinction here, yet there must be one because the former finds a non-empty match for (\w\w\w) before it looks for an empty one!

Thanks,

Athanasius <°(((>< contra mundum

Iustus alius egestas vitae, eros Piratica,

how does $dna =~ / (\w\w\w)*? TGA /gx differ logically from $s =~ / (f)*? C /gx

The important difference here is the length of $1.

After the first match (A is where the matching started, B denotes the position of the capture group)

XXXxxxTGAxxTGAxxxxTGAxx
^     ^
|     |
A     B
[download]

the matching starts at B + 1. Zero times \w\w\w doesn't match here, we have xxTGAx, so the engine tries longer and longer strings, until it finds the TGA:

XXXxxxTGAxxTGAxxxxTGAxx
         ^        ^
         |        |
         A        B
[download]

The next search will start at B + 1 again, and fail on xx.

But, with the capture group of length 1, you always match the nearest group, because the (f)*? tries longer and longer strings. Maybe what's confusing here is that expanding the group by one character is similar to the engine advancing the starting position after a match failure?

($q=q:Sq=~/;[c](.)(.)/;chr(-||-|5+lengthSq)`"S|oS2"`map{chr |+ord
}map{substrSq`S_+|`|}3E|-|`7**2-3:)=~y+S|`+$1,++print+eval$q,q,a,
[download]

Is your Supplemental question meant rhetorically?

It was meant rhetorically, but I'm glad you enjoyed it!

... my $s = 'abCdefC'; while ($s =~ / (f)*? C /gx) { ... }
...
I actually don’t understand how this can ever, logically, match with more than zero, since zero is possible and less greedy than 1??

I think choroba has already well addressed the issues you raised in the paragraph following the one from which this is quoted, but let me try to address this one specifically — insofar as I understand what's going on and assuming I understand your question!

In the code below, I think we're both happy that the  (f)*? capture group acting before the first 'C' in the string is allowed not to match at all, and in that case the value of the capture variable ($1 in the code) is undef. I think we can agree that if the group expression were changed to  (f*?) it would also match, capturing the empty string to $1.

The second 'C' in the string is preceded by an 'f'. Why do both  (f)*? and  (f*?) capture the 'f' when they can be satisfied with nothing and need not be satisfied with anything more than nothing (i.e., they both do lazy matching)?

Here's my story. If the RE matches nothing at offset 5 (the 'f'), it must then match a 'C' at offset 5, which is already occupied by an 'f', in order to satisfy the overall regex! The RE must first "consume" the 'f' at offset 5 before it can advance to match the 'C' at offset 6 for an overall match.

c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le
"use Data::Dump qw(pp);
 ;;
 my $s = 'abCdefC';
 print '01234567';
 print $s;
 print '------------';
 ;;
 while ($s =~ / (f)*? C /gx) {
   printf qq{matched (f) of %s then C at pos of %d \n},
     pp($1), pos $s;
   }
 ;;
 print '------------';
 ;;
 while ($s =~ / (f*?) C /gx) {
   printf qq{matched (f) of %s then C at pos of %d \n},
     pp($1), pos $s;
   }
"
01234567
abCdefC
------------
matched (f) of undef then C at pos of 3
matched (f) of "f" then C at pos of 7
------------
matched (f) of "" then C at pos of 3
matched (f) of "f" then C at pos of 7
[download]

But here's a non-rhetorical question. In the code below, notice that there is a peculiar double-step at pos 3. The 'f' at offset 2 is first not captured (either as undef or as the empty string), then captured. I don't get it: a non-zero-width match is never a necessity for an overall match. Why not just step over the 'f' at offset 2 in the same way all the other characters are stepped over?

c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le
"use Data::Dump qw(pp);
 ;;
 my $s = 'xxfxx';
 print '012345';
 print $s;
 print '------------';
 ;;
 while ($s =~ / (f)*? /gx) {
   printf qq{matched (f)*? of %s, starting at offset of %s, ending at 
+pos of %d \n},
     pp($1), pp($-[1]), pos $s;
   }
 ;;
 print '------------';
 ;;
 while ($s =~ / (f*?) /gx) {
   printf qq{matched (f*?) of %s, starting at offset of %s, ending at 
+pos of %d \n},
     pp($1), pp($-[1]), pos $s;
   }
"
012345
xxfxx
------------
matched (f)*? of undef, starting at offset of undef, ending at pos of 
+0
matched (f)*? of undef, starting at offset of undef, ending at pos of 
+1
matched (f)*? of undef, starting at offset of undef, ending at pos of 
+2
matched (f)*? of "f", starting at offset of 2, ending at pos of 3
matched (f)*? of undef, starting at offset of undef, ending at pos of 
+3
matched (f)*? of undef, starting at offset of undef, ending at pos of 
+4
matched (f)*? of undef, starting at offset of undef, ending at pos of 
+5
------------
matched (f*?) of "", starting at offset of 0, ending at pos of 0
matched (f*?) of "", starting at offset of 1, ending at pos of 1
matched (f*?) of "", starting at offset of 2, ending at pos of 2
matched (f*?) of "f", starting at offset of 2, ending at pos of 3
matched (f*?) of "", starting at offset of 3, ending at pos of 3
matched (f*?) of "", starting at offset of 4, ending at pos of 4
matched (f*?) of "", starting at offset of 5, ending at pos of 5
[download]

(This code produces the same output under Strawberries 5.10, 5.12 and 5.14. However, when run under ActiveState 5.8.9, the output is the same except that $1 is always undef! I assume this is a bug that was fixed between 5.8.9 and 5.10.x, or maybe between AS and Strawberry.)

Update: Consider also the second code example with a string of 'xxfffxx' for similar perplexity.

---

Give a man a fish:  <%-{-{-{-<

I really appreciate your effort to my matter. Thank you very much sir.

Fascinated by your post i cast a stone in the lake (of my ignorance)..
at offset 11 it is not to late to have 3 chars before TGA?

L*

There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.