use strict; use warnings; my $spat = qr/(?:abc|xyz)/; while() { chomp; my $r = $_; my @flds = unpack "(A3)*", $r; print "$r => "; do { print "$_ " if /$spat/ } for @flds; print "\n"; } __DATA__ abcmmmnnn mmmxyznnn xyzfooabc mabcmxyzm