I guess I didn't explain why mine works and why the OP's doesn't work with ".+". Compare 

while ($str =~ /($re)/g) {
   print("$1\n");
}

[download]
use re 'eval';

$str =~ /
   ($re)
   (?{ print("$1\n"); })
   (?!)
/x;

[download]

Looks similar? But for the same input, they produce different results.

Input: 

my $str = 'aabcdabcabce';
my $re  = qr/a[^a]*/;

[download]

Output from /.../g: 

a
abcd
abc
abce

[download]

Output from /...(?{ save results })(?!)/: 

a
abcd
abc
ab
a
abc
ab
a
abce
abc
ab
a

[download]

/...(?{ save results })(?!)/ is key in finding all possible matches. It forces the regex to try everything to obtain a match.

In reply to Re^2: how to count the number of repeats in a string (really!) by ikegami
in thread how to count the number of repeats in a string (really!) by blazar

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