$text = "xcystartsdhjsXYZ:joeblow@mail.cpEwrendrwerwep"; 
 
 
if ($text =~ /\bXYZ:\b(.*?)\b@mail.cp\b/) { 
    $result = $1; 
    # do something with results 
    print $result, $1; 
}
[download]

That prints nothing because there's no /\bXYZ:\b/ in that string! Give it a start/end point that actually occurs, and you'll see you're on the right track.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker