The pattern /^(.+?)\1*(.+?)(?:\1|\2)*(.+?)(?:\1|\2|\3)+$/ will find the three patterns and put them in $1, $2, and $3. You can use a function to build this regex:

sub findpattern
 {
   my $data = shift;
   my $num  = shift;
   my $re;
   my $i;
   my @retval;

   $re = '^';
   for($i = 1; $i <= $num; $i++)
    {
      $re .= '(.+?)(?:'.join('|', map("\\$_", 1..$i)).')';
      if($i == $num)
       {
         $re .= '+';
       }
      else
       {
         $re .= '*';
       }
    }
   $re .= '$';
   if($data =~ /$re/)
    {
      for($i = 1; $i <= $num; $i++)
       {
         push(@retval, ${$i});
       }
      return @retval;
    }
   return undef;
 }
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If passed the data and the number of patterns it will return a list of the patterns or undef if unable to find them (at least one pattern must be repeated more than once).

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