note Anonymous Monk Like [doc://perlop]#[doc://perlop#m/PATTERN/msixpodualgc] ( [doc://perlop]#[doc://perlop#m//] ), says, <blockquote>m// in scalar context returns true if it succeeds, false if it fails. </blockquote> <p> Each time m// succeeds against a variable, like when <c> $n = m/twinkle/ig; </c> executes, [doc://pos]ition is changed, so that <c> while(/twinkle/ig) { </c> executes, only the second twinkle is counted. <p> If you add this to your program before the while loop <c> print "pos is ", pos, ", remainder '", substr($_, pos), "'\n"; pos($_) = undef;</c> this resets pos associated with $_, and then your program will produce <c>Number of occurences = 1 pos is 7, remainder ' twinkle little star' Found 2 times</c> <p> Like perlfaq4 says, if you want the number of occurances, use [id://815606|the flying lentil operator], use <C> my $count =()= m/twinkle/ig; </c> 960264 960266 16