Your pattern (/^\w\w.+(\w\w).+(\d+).+(\w\w)/sg), which "should only match the first paragraph", actually matches them all (except the one that's only "1"). 

/^\w\w.+(\w\w).+(\d+).+(\w\w)/sg
  h  i\n h i  \n 234 \n h i

/^\w\w.+(\w\w).+      (\d+) .+(\w\w)/xsg
  h o i\ns d  fsdfsdf  23423\n h i

/^\w\w.+(\w\w).+(\d+).+(\w\w)/sg
  h i \n h i  \n 1   2  3 4

[download]

Try just enumerating the paragraphs: 

sub slurpie {
    local $/ = '';
    my $n = 1;
    while (<DATA>) {
        printf "*** paragraph %d ***\n", $n++;
        print;
    }
}
slurpie();
__END__
*** paragraph 1 ***
hi
hi
234
hi

*** paragraph 2 ***
hoi
sdfsdfsdf23423
hi

*** paragraph 3 ***
hi
hi
1234

*** paragraph 4 ***
1

[download]

In reply to Re^6: $/ question by kyle
in thread $/ question by convenientstore

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