Use a zero-width positive lookahead assertion.

$string = "This is barney rubble and his friends joe rockhead and fred
+ flintstone";
$string =~ /(?=.*fred (\w+))?(?=.*barney (\w+))?(?=.*joe (\w+))?/;
$company = $1 . '_' . $2 . '_' . $3 . '_' . 'inc';
print "$company\n"

# "flintstone_rubble_rockhead_inc"

[download]

This prints "flintstone_rubble_rockhead_inc". It doesn't fail if one or more names are missing, and keeps the order of your captures -- that is, the word following barney is always $2 (if barney's there), even if fred is missing.

$string = "This is bLarney rubble and his friends joe rockhead and fre
+d flintstone";
$string =~ /(?=.*fred (\w+))?(?=.*barney (\w+))?(?=.*joe (\w+))?/;
$company = $1 . '_' . $2 . '_' . $3 . '_' . 'inc';
print "$company\n"

# "flintstone__rockhead_inc"

[download]

In reply to Re: Need a Regular Expression that tests for words in different order and captures the values found. by furry_marmot
in thread Need a Regular Expression that tests for words in different order and captures the values found. by greatwazzoo

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