Yes, you're correct, and that did occur to me when I wrote the code. However, in the present case the last "fox" is the same as the last "fox" before "forest". Of course, if you put more "fox"s after "forest", then that changes things, but also suppose there are several "forests" and "fox"s. Then do we want every "fox" that is the last before *some* "forest" or just the last such case, etc, etc. Without really exact requirements it's unclear. I guessed that the real question posed by the original poster had to do with finding the last "fox", and that the fact that he described it as the last "fox" "relative to forest" was coincidental. But looking at the original post again, I think your objection is justified.
(Update: As far as Perl Monks being useful for learning, I find it extremely so. Sometimes the most interesting posts/replies involve some incorrect tries and then corrections. It is often quite useful to see some errors and realize just what went wrong in addition to some really slick solution.)
chas

In reply to Re^3: regexp find last word by chas
in thread regexp find last word by Murcia

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