I'm trying to parse an ICal Duration string. Here's the definition from the RFC: 
   Formal Definition: The value type is defined by the following
   notation:

     dur-value  = (["+"] / "-") "P" (dur-date / dur-time / dur-week)

     dur-date   = dur-day [dur-time]
     dur-time   = "T" (dur-hour / dur-minute / dur-second)
     dur-week   = 1*DIGIT "W"
     dur-hour   = 1*DIGIT "H" [dur-minute]
     dur-minute = 1*DIGIT "M" [dur-second]
     dur-second = 1*DIGIT "S"
     dur-day    = 1*DIGIT "D"

[download]
and here's the Perl regex I've been using, and that's been failing.. 
    my @temp = $str =~ m{
            ([\+\-])?   (?# Sign)
            (P)     (?# 'P' for period? This is our magic character)
            (?:
                (?:(\d+)Y)? (?# Years)
                (?:(\d+)M)? (?# Months)
                (?:(\d+)W)? (?# Weeks)
                (?:(\d+)D)? (?# Days)
            )?
            (?:T        (?# Time prefix)
                (?:(\d+)H)? (?# Hours)
                (?:(\d+)M)? (?# Minutes)
                (?:(\d+)S)? (?# Seconds)
            )?
              }x;

[download]
this fails even on simple duration strings (eg "P1D" ). thanks, in advance, for the suggestions.

In reply to regex - parsing a string with many optional fields by Anonymous Monk

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.