I am assuming that you want $result to contain the contents of the ()'s if the pattern matches, but "default" otherwise. Providing the ()'s cannot return "0" or "" then you could use

my ($result)= (m[pattern(group)])[0] || "default";

The outer ()'s put the RE into a list context, then we pick off the first element, which will be the contents of the matching parens

In reply to Re: Did I match or didn't I? by gbarr
in thread Did I match or didn't I? by John M. Dlugosz

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