$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my $x = q{A|||||Z}; my $dot_re = qr{(.*?\|)}; my $cc_re = qr{([^|]*\|)}; $x =~ $dot_re; say $1; $x =~ $cc_re; say $1; ' A| A| #### $ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my $x = q{A|||||Z}; my $dot_re = qr{(.*?\|)Z}; my $cc_re = qr{([^|]*\|)Z}; $x =~ $dot_re; say $1; $x =~ $cc_re; say $1; ' A||||| |