OK, so investigating this further, it seems that the error not actually caused by the RegEx, but rather by the code that follows it - which I find even stranger.

The following works: 
while (<MYFILE>)
{
   $line = $_;              

   if( $line =~ m/(?<!$pre)$searchTerm(?!$post)/ )
       {print $line};       
 
}

[download]
The following doesn't work: 
while (<MYFILE>)
{
   $line = $_;              

   if( $line =~ m/(?<!$pre)$searchTerm(?!$post)/ )
       {print $line};       
  
    if ($pre = "" and $post = "") 
    {
        print "Case 1";
    } elsif ($pre = "") 
    {
        print "Case 2";  
    } elsif ($post = "") 
    {
        print "Case 3";  
    } else 
    {
        print "Case 4";  
    }                      
    print "\n";
}

[download]
Any ideas why??

Cheers,

Martin

In reply to Re^3: Using lookaround with variables by mwunderlich
in thread Using lookaround with variables by mwunderlich

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.