This is a "further" question re the replies from moritz and Marshall.

And in following their answers, I found it helpful to remember that "greedy" is not the same as "global." While (b*) is greedy, it is not global, /(b*)/g. In other words (I thought) /(b*)/ stops after the first (moritz caught this)failure success , at the start of the string, whereas adding the /g would tell the regex engine to keep on trying until it reaches the end of the string.

Well, that was my second thought.

But, OOOPS,

"abbbbc"=~/(b*)/g && print "Found: $1";
# Found:

[download]

Huh?

Well, is this a case where the rules are different in substitution?

my $string1 = "abbbbc";

my $found1 = $string1 =~ s/(b*)/^/g;

print "\$string1: $string1, \$found1: $found1"; $found1 is 4

=head

after s///  $string: ^a^^c^
At begin of string
    ...no "b" found |         # satisfies "0 or more 'b's"
         "a" (duh!)  |
     Two "b"(s) found |       # likewise; the first and second 'b's ar
+e conflated? 
         and again     |
             "c"        |
     no "b" after "c"    |
=cut

[download]

That this code produces two replacements for the string of four 'b's remains a puzzle. Why does this appear (this may be my error) that the regex conflates two 'b's rather than all four?

Enlightenment?
or Coffee?

Update: Wonderful answer below. s/failure/success/ per moritz; italics closed per ssandv.

In reply to Re: Greediness of * vs. greediness of + by ww
in thread Greediness of * vs. greediness of + by rovf

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