I wouldn't try to fit everything into one regexp, try creating a series of regexes like: 
my $group;
if ($teststring =~ /^\[(\w+)]/) {
  $group = $1;
} elsif ($teststring =~ /^(\w+)/ {
  $group = $1;
...

[download]
(the r.e.s may not be perfect, i'm just writing them without testing)

In reply to Re: Problem with RegEx & various "endings" by pjotrik
in thread Problem with RegEx & various "endings" by timesink

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