Shell Programming and Scripting

 
 $string = "Perl is a\nScripting language";
 ($start) = ($string =~ /\A(.*?) /);
 @lines = ($string =~ /^(.*?) /gm);
 print "First Word (using \\A): $start\n","Line Starts (using ^): @lines\n";

       By default, a quantified subpattern is "greedy", that is, it will match
       as many times as possible (given a particular starting location) while
       still allowing the rest of the pattern to match.  If you want it to
       match the minimum number of times possible, follow the quantifier with
       a "?".  Note that the meanings don't change, just the "greediness":

           *?     Match 0 or more times, not greedily
           +?     Match 1 or more times, not greedily
           ??     Match 0 or 1 time, not greedily
           {n}?   Match exactly n times, not greedily
           {n,}?  Match at least n times, not greedily
           {n,m}? Match at least n but not more than m times, not greedily