You might be surprised by this though:

($a) = "abc" =~ /a(b)c/ or 'd';
print defined $a ? "defined as $a\n" : "undef\n"; # prints "defined as
+ b"
($a) = "abc" =~ /a(x)c/ or 'd';
print defined $a ? "defined as $a\n" : "undef\n"; # prints "undef"
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See, your or is lower than the assignment. The assignment is happening at all times, assigning undef if the match fails.

So, that isn't the answer either.

Perhaps what you're looking for is:

($a) = "abc" =~ /a(b)c/ or $a = "d";
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-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
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