regex : finding the location multiple clustered (in parenthesis) groups

yonatan has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

hello monks,

i wish to match the "neither-nor" couples in the following text sample:

"..
Neither Jack nor Peter wants to go to the party next week.
Neither Jane nor her friends support the mayor. 
.."
[download]

suggested matching pattern is:

(\bneither\b)[^.?!;]*?(\bnor\b)

i want to get the location of BOTH the first (\bneither\b) and its following (\bnor\b).

the location information may be similar to that returned by pos(), i.e. the following character position when //g is in use.

my questions:

1. is there an elegant way to return the position of single parenthesized group?

2. -"- the position of each group out of multiple groups?

thank you!

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Re: regex : finding the location multiple clustered (in parenthesis) groups by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Aug 02, 2010 at 10:15 UTC
See `@-` in perlvar.(Updated link)	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: regex : finding the location multiple clustered (in parenthesis) groups by wol (Hermit) on Aug 02, 2010 at 11:46 UTC
The link above goes to documentation for an older version of perl. This one should be up-to-date enough to include @- perlvar -- use JAPH; print JAPH::asString();	[reply]
Re^2: regex : finding the location multiple clustered (in parenthesis) groups by yonatan (Novice) on Aug 02, 2010 at 12:19 UTC
thank you. this is exactly what i needed. your link is outdated (applies to perl 5.6), thus lacking the definition of `@-` . i attach an updated link to perlvar documentation which holds your intended contents.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: regex : finding the location multiple clustered (in parenthesis) groups by patrick.j (Acolyte) on Aug 02, 2010 at 12:02 UTC
You Might Consider using @- (or @LAST_MATCH_START with use English) It holds exactly what you are asking for first matching Group start at $-1, first matching group end at $+1. see 1. (use something like @-1,2)	[reply]