in reply to Abbreviation regex?

An alternative: 
/^a($|b($|b($|r($|e($|v($|i($|a($|t($|i($|o($|n$)))))))))))/

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In both yours and mine, (?:...) would be faster than (...). I left it as is for the sake of simplicity.

Of course, the simpliest solution would be substr($word, 0, length($str)) eq $str, but it's non-regexp.

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Re^2: Abbreviation regex?
by Tanktalus (Canon) on Jan 16, 2006 at 17:37 UTC

    That's just screaming for factorisation. ;-)

    /^a(|b(|b(|r(|e(|v(|i(|a(|t(|i(|o(|n)))))))))))$/

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    Or, to possibly make the abbreviation stand out a bit more at the expense of some readability: 
    /^a(b(b(r(e(v(i(a(t(i(o(n|)|)|)|)|)|)|)|)|)|)|)$/

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    (The non-toy solution probably involves Text::Abbrev.)

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