I think you missed the importance of

or to the next successful pattern match, whichever comes first 

$author =~ s/\.//g; # Remove full stops (periods)

[download]

is that next successful pattern match, clobbering your $3!

Liz

In reply to Re: Modifying value of $1 clobbers $2, $3 etc? by liz
in thread Modifying value of $1 clobbers $2, $3 etc? by Not_a_Number

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