You are trying to use $1 after a failing match, so basically you deserve whatever's coming to you ;)

Thanks, blokhead. That's more or less what I'd intuited. But, in that case:

1) Why doesn't the 'failing match' clobber $1 in my first two snippets?

2) With respect to the docs:

The numbered variables ($1, $2, $3, etc.) ... are all dynamically scoped until the end of the enclosing block or until the next successful match, whichever comes first.

This seems to suggest that $1 (provided that it stays in scope) should not change until a match succeeds, rather than being clobbered if a match fails (which, I'm sure you'll agree, is not the same thing...).

Why you still ended up getting exactly the old first character though is a mystery to me.

To me too...

Still Confused,

dave