What merlyn said.

This regex wouldn't match my email address for a start.

it matches on you@here.com and other real addresses

but it wouldn't match "john.smith@johnsmith.com", would it?

And if you're thinking "yes it would!", then you might like to check what the \w means in regexes. I spent a lot of time struggling when I first started learning Perl because I thought my concept of a word and Perl's were the same. They aren't.
--

($_='jjjuuusssttt annootthheer
     pppeeerrrlll haaaccckkeer')=~y/a-z//s;print;
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