$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my $re1 = qr{PV1\|1\|O\|(?:[^|]*\|){3}\|}; my $re2 = qr{PV1\|1\|O\|([^|]*\|){3}\|}; my $x = q{PV1|1|O|F3|F4|F5|F6|F7}; my $y = q{PV1|1|O|F3|F4|F5||F7}; say "------- Clustering -------"; say "Match in \$x" if $x =~ /$re1/; say $1 if $1; say "Match in \$y" if $y =~ /$re1/; say $1 if $1; say "------- Capturing -------"; say "Match in \$x" if $x =~ /$re2/; say $1 if $1; say "Match in \$y" if $y =~ /$re2/; say $1 if $1; ' ------- Clustering ------- Match in $y ------- Capturing ------- Match in $y F5|