my @groups = ( 'fo.', '.­*?', 'ba.' );
my $find = join '', @groups;
my $capture = join '', map "($_)", @groups;
my $fc = read_my_file();
my @excerpts = $fc =~ /$find/g;
my @parts = $excerpts[0] =~ /$capture/;
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[Updated: Changed [ ... ] to ( ... ) on the first line -- thanks for the private correction.]