note JavaFan Untested: <code> foreach my $pattern (@patterns) { for (my $i = 0; $i < length($string); $i += 3) { push @matches, ${^MATCH} if substr($string, $i) =~ /^$pattern/p; } } </code> It shouldn't be hard to adapt if you want the offsets (as your original code does). It does capture overlapping matches, although with the given patterns, no overlap is possible. 948417 948417