Regex: Asterisk with NO preceding token

pedrete has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks...!!

i have "silly"? question for you, please....

in Perl regex... what is the behaviour of an asterisk with no preceding token????

an example of my doubt:

This:
.*@abc.com matches monks@abc.com
ok so far...

BUT...

this:

*@abc.com also matches!!!!!!!!!
WHY????

Thanks!
Pedrete.

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Re: Regex: Asterisk with NO preceding token by beech (Parson) on Feb 10, 2016 at 08:17 UTC
in Perl regex... what is the behaviour of an asterisk with no preceding token???? Its an error `$ perl -le " //" Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/ <-- HER +E / at -e line 1.` [download] also matches!!!!!!!!! WHY???? I don't think it does that. You should post real code with real output from that code that shows * matching something and not generating an error.	[reply] [d/l]