Glad to hear you have a working solution. Might I also suggest that for test scripts like this you consider using one of the Test::* frameworks? They will help to highlight where your matches fail. Here's an example using the ubiquitous Test::More to show how simple it would be to integrate.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Test::More;
# Set up source strings (keys) and expected results (values)
my %tests = (
'"abcd\\\\efgh"' => 'abcd\\\\efgh',
'"abcd\\""' => 'abcd\\"',
'"abcd\\"efgh"' => 'abcd\\"efgh',
'"abcd\\\\\\"efgh"' => 'abcd\\\\\\"efgh',
'"abcd\\\\i\\"efgh"' => 'abcd\\\\i\\"efgh',
'"abcd\\\\"' => 'abcd\\\\'
);
# Set the total number of tests to perform
plan tests => 3 * keys %tests;
while ( my ($test, $exp) = each %tests) {
ok ($test =~ /^"((?:[^"\\]|\\["\\])+)"$/, "$test matches");
is ($1, $exp, "\$1 is $exp");
is ($2, undef, '$2 is undefined');
}
If any of the tests fail it is easier to spot than having to visually parse the script output. You can also run prove on the script to get just a summary which is even clearer.
If you write a lot of scripts like this, it is well worth becoming familiar with the wealth of testing modules available.