Global Find

The g flag can find repeated matches in a string.

global_find.pl

use strict;
use warnings;

my $text = ;
my $count = 0;
my $last_pos = 0;

while ($text =~ /cat/g) {
    $count = $count + 1;
    $last_pos = pos($text);
}

print "text=$text\n";
print "count=$count\n";
print "last_pos=$last_pos\n";

use strict;
use warnings;

my $text = ;
my $count = 0;
my $last_pos = 0;

while ($text =~ /cat/g) {
    $count = $count + 1;
    $last_pos = pos($text);
}

print "text=$text\n";
print "count=$count\n";
print "last_pos=$last_pos\n";

use strict;
use warnings;

my $text = ;
my $count = 0;
my $last_pos = 0;

while ($text =~ /cat/g) {
    $count = $count + 1;
    $last_pos = pos($text);
}

print "text=$text\n";
print "count=$count\n";
print "last_pos=$last_pos\n";

global match A global match keeps searching after the previous match.