Here's something that sort of does what you want:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Text::Balanced ('extract_tagged');

my $text = "this is a test <b>for</b> tags! \n";

my ($leading,$extracted, $remainder);
$leading = substr $text, 0, index($text,'<'), '';
($extracted, $remainder) = extract_tagged($text);

printf "leading: %s$/", $leading;
printf "extracted: %s$/", $extracted;
printf "remainder: %s$/", $remainder;

exit 0;

[download]
That can be iterated over both $extracted and $remainder to parse html. HTML::Parser is probably a better bet, particularly (given your reply to jcwren) with its friend HTML::LinkExtor.

Update: Here's code that does what you were trying more exactly. Text::Balanced honors pos:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Text::Balanced ('extract_tagged');

my $text = "this is a test <B>for</B> tags! \n";
pos($text) = index $text, '<';

my $extracted = extract_tagged($text);

printf "extracted: %s$/", $extracted;
printf "remainder: %s$/", $text;
exit 0;

[download]
Note scalar context for &extract_tagged.

After Compline,
Zaxo

In reply to Re: Text::Balanced woes.. by Zaxo
in thread Text::Balanced woes.. by u914

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.