> both e* and e+ should have given same output. Why is the difference in output?

Good question, I think many are confused.

It's important to understand that empty matches exist and that e* means e{0}|e+ ( or something like e{0,32766} ° ).

So you are actually matching e{0} before all!

Printing out the match position of a capture group via @+ helps demonstrating it

  DB<1> $_ = "This is a teeeext for testting";

  DB<2> ;/(?<char>e*)/   and print "'$+{char}' is matched pattern at p
+os $+[0]\n";
'' is matched pattern at pos 0

  DB<3> ;/(?<char>e{0})/   and print "'$+{char}' is matched pattern at
+ pos $+[0]\n";
'' is matched pattern at pos 0

  DB<4> ;/(?<char>e+)/   and print "'$+{char}' is matched pattern at p
+os $+[0]\n";
'eeee' is matched pattern at pos 15

  DB<5> ;/(?<char>e{1,32766})/   and print "'$+{char}' is matched patt
+ern at pos $+[0]\n";
'eeee' is matched pattern at pos 15

  DB<6>

[download]

update

Cheers Rolf
(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice

°) yes there is an maximal upper bound in range quantifiers, which I expected to be around 2**16, so it's an incomplete analogy

In reply to Re^3: Greedy modifier found to be working non-greedy in a named group by LanX
in thread Greedy modifier found to be working non-greedy in a named group by rkabhi

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