You can avoid the extraneous capture by using non-capturing parens. 

my( $start, $middle, $end ) = $string =~ m[^ (.*?) ( (?:AB)+ ) (.*?) $
+]xg

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...but you know that:)

Examine what is said, not who speaks.
"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
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If I understand your problem, I can solve it! Of course, the same can be said for you.

In reply to Re: Re: Regex help by BrowserUk
in thread Regex help by gri6507

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