What is it supposed to do?

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It's a bad idea to try to parse HTML using regular expressions (especially like that). There are some pure perl html parsers available if you're really in a bind, like YAPE::HTML by japhy, a real perl regex hacker.

Anyway, my own HTML::LinkExtractor seems perfect for what you're trying to do, which I'm guessing is something like:

#!perl
#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI qw[:standard];
use HTML::LinkExtractor;

use strict;
use warnings;

print header,start_html;

{
    my $count=0;
    my $lE = HTML::LinkExtractor->new(
        sub {
            my( $lE, $t ) = @_;

            if( $t->{tag} eq 'a' ) {

                my ( $outer, $inner ) = $t->{_TEXT} =~ /(\d+)\((\d+)\)
+/;

                return unless $outer and $inner;

                print
                    a( { -href => $t->{href} }, $count++ ),
                      qq{ [ $outer ][ $inner ]},
                    br;
            }
        }
    );

    $lE->strip(1);

    $lE->parse(\q[
        <a href = "http://polisource.com">12(2345678901234)</a>
    ]);
}


print end_html;
[download]

MJD says you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo! ** The Third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.