http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=987597


in reply to Re^3: String Matching
in thread String Matching

I'll see you and raise you.   /(a*)/ (note * quantifier in place of +) matches, but captures nothing, not even a single 'a'. 

>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $s = 'xaxaaaaa';
 print qq{matched, captured '$1'} if $s =~ /(a*)/;
"
matched, captured ''

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