Hi, I have a question regarding the use of $& . In my code I use the Regexp::List module like so 
my $regexp = Regexp::List ->new(modifiers => 'i',quotemeta => 0) ->lis
+t2re(@patterns);

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The contents of $regexp look like this 
(?-xism:(?i:(?=[acdilrsuw])(?:create (?:t(?:able|rigger)|function|defa
+ult|pro[cedure]|rule|view)|d(?:rop (?:t(?:able|rigger)|default|functi
+on|rule|view)|elete )|s(?:p_(?:bind(?:efault|msg|rule)|drop(?:(?:g|ro
+w)lockpromote|key)|p(?:laceobject|rimarykey)|rename(?:_qpgroup)?|set(
+?:pg|row)lockpromote|unbind(?:efault|msg|rule)|add_qpgroup|chgattribu
+te|foreignkey|hidetext)|etuser)|(?:alter|lock) table|(?:insert|update
+) |remove java|writetext)))

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What I need to do is to find out which pattern matched and then do something based on the answer. If the pattern matched was "insert update or delete" I need to take further action. The question is what is the best way of handling this ?
I've read some comments about the use of $& being bad to use for performance reasons
e.g. 
my $regexp = Regexp::List ->new(modifiers => 'i',quotemeta => 0) ->lis
+t2re(@patterns);
if ($string =~ /$regexp/) {
  if ($& eq "insert" or $& eq "delete" or $& eq "update") {
          do something with $string
  } 
call a subroutine here...
}

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This example code may be called a considerable number of times (i.e. millions). Since I'm starting out in Perl I'd like to make sure I am writing reasonable code. So how do I do this without using $& ? Any help appreciated.

In reply to Most recent pattern match by Anonymous Monk

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