I would use a different approach to your task, rather than a complicated regex:

my @wanted = ( 'C', 'C++','.NET', );
my $str = '.net, .net; C# .NET Cobol .NET C++ .NET .NETER c# IT x.NET'
+;

my %split_str;
$split_str{ +uc }++ for split /[ ;,]+/, $str;

say "$_: " . ( $split_str{$_} || 0 ) for @wanted;

[download]

That way, if you need to add another item to your search list, there's only one change to be made in one place. For example, if you wanted to add say C# or PL/M, you would just append them to the @wanted array.

Update: Of course, this approach fails for 'Visual Basic', but as far as I can see, so do all the other replies in this thread...

In reply to Re: Regex help \b & \Q by Not_a_Number
in thread Regex help \b & \Q by Anonymous Monk

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