Deciphering your optical illusion... er, regular expression is a job for YAPE::Regex::Explain: 
use warnings;
use strict;
use YAPE::Regex::Explain;
my $re = '[\w().-]*\(?([\w.-])?\)?\s*->\s$';
print YAPE::Regex::Explain->new($re)->explain();

__END__

[download]
The regular expression:

(?-imsx:[\w().-]*\(?([\w.-])?\)?\s*->\s$)

matches as follows:
  
NODE                     EXPLANATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(?-imsx:                 group, but do not capture (case-sensitive)
                         (with ^ and $ matching normally) (with . not
                         matching \n) (matching whitespace and #
                         normally):
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  [\w().-]*                any character of: word characters (a-z, A-
                           Z, 0-9, _), '(', ')', '.', '-' (0 or more
                           times (matching the most amount possible))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \(?                      '(' (optional (matching the most amount
                           possible))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  (                        group and capture to \1 (optional
                           (matching the most amount possible)):
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    [\w.-]                   any character of: word characters (a-z,
                             A-Z, 0-9, _), '.', '-'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  )?                       end of \1 (NOTE: because you're using a
                           quantifier on this capture, only the LAST
                           repetition of the captured pattern will be
                           stored in \1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \)?                      ')' (optional (matching the most amount
                           possible))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \s*                      whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (0 or
                           more times (matching the most amount
                           possible))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  ->                       '->'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \s                       whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ")
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  $                        before an optional \n, and the end of the
                           string
----------------------------------------------------------------------
)                        end of grouping
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[download]

Do you really need those capturing parentheses? All the examples in the doc show pretty simple regexes for prompt. Maybe you could try simplifying the regex until it passes some simple case.

is throwing an error
What is the error message?

In reply to Re: Regex check by toolic
in thread Regex check by spivey49

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