Re: Problem with alternating regex?

[GrandFather]

The problem is that $1 is the first (and outermost) set of capturing parenthesis so you capture the id \d+ prefix along with the stuff you want. A clean fix is to make the id match optional:

use warnings;
use strict;

my $strs = <<STRS;
set zone "VLAN" vrouter "trust-vr"
set zone for "non-matched" stuff
set zone id 100 "Internet_Only"
quoted "stuff" without set zone
STRS

open my $fIn, '<', \$strs;

while (defined(my $line = <$fIn>)) {
    next if $line !~ /^set\szone\s (?:id\s\d+\s)? "([^"]*)"/x;
    my $zone = $1;
    
    chomp $line;
    print "Config line=> $.;    Value=> $line;    zone=> $zone\n";
}

Prints:

Config line=> 1;    Value=> set zone "VLAN" vrouter "trust-vr";    zon
+e=> VLAN
Config line=> 3;    Value=> set zone id 100 "Internet_Only";    zone=>
+ Internet_Only

which retains a fairly specific match, but allows the variability you need. Notice that (?: ...) is used to provide grouping without capturing. Oh, and the x flag lets me use some white space in the regex so the moving parts are easier to see.

[dwlepage]

Thanks everyone. This has been very helpful!