#--- complex.pm
package complex;
use strict;

sub whatis{
    my $self = shift;
    my $input = shift;
    my %data = (
    ip_address => \qr/\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+/,
    phone => \qr/^\d{3}[-]\d{3}[-]\d{4}$/,
    );

    foreach(keys %data){
        return $data{$_} if /$input/;
    }
    return 0;
}
1;
#--- test.pl
#!/perl/bin/perl
use complex;
use strict;

my @list1 = qw ( 704-123-4569 
        115.43.2.123 
        112.32.24.2 
    );

push @list1, "312-231-2312 (ext. 23)";


my @list2 = qw ( ip_address phone );


foreach (@list1){
  foreach my $x (@list2){
    if ( /${complex->whatis($x)}/ ){
    print "$_ is an $x\n";
     }
  }

  if ( /${complex->whatis('phone')}*\s+\(ext\. (\d+)\)/ ){
        print "$_ is an phone with ext $1 \n";
  }
}
[download]

Don't know if this helps... return a ref to your objects variable? then de-ref it in your regex and append any additonal expressions? (In this example, I use qr to in the hash, and pass a ref back... I think I can see why you would do this... interesting..)

James :)