in reply to The value of pattern match variable $&

perlvar defines $& ($MATCH) with the cavet "not counting any matches hidden within a BLOCK", and yours are, although I admit surprise at the behaviour.
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Re^2: The value of pattern match variable $&
by bart (Canon) on May 15, 2006 at 09:57 UTC
    It's by design. There's an implicit local for match variables in blocks.

    And re "reliability": a regexp that doesn't match will not affect the match variables, they will not (necessarily) be undef, but the value they got on the last succesful regexp — with the above caveat.

      That doens't quite explain it. It the first loop, it's as if the implicit local $& is outside of the loop — It prints 'bar' on the 'baz' pass of the loop — while in the second loop, it's as is the implicit local $& is inside of the loop.

      Could
      print "$&\n" unless /bar/;
      suffer from a problem similar to the one from which
      my ... if ...;
      suffers?