First, previous answers use `$1`, but I hate using global variables when it's not necessary. It's not necessary here.

Second, previous answers assume you don't want to capture newlines, but you didn't say anything of the kind.

Fix: 

if (my ($match) = $s =~ /yesterday (.*?) after/s) {
   say $match;
}

[download]

Finally, using the `?` greediness modifier can lead to surprises (especially if you use more than one in a single pattern). If given 

yesterday foo yesterday bar after

[download]

the above regex will capture 

foo yesterday bar

[download]

If you want 

bar

[download]

use the following instead: 

if (my ($match) = $s =~ /hello ((?:(?!yesterday).)*) yesterday/s) {
   say $match;
}

[download]

(?:(?!STRING).) is to STRING as [^CHAR] is to CHAR.

In reply to Re: How do I extract the data that comes after a certain word? by ikegami
in thread How do I extract the data that comes after a certain word? by MiriamH

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.