#!/usr/bin/env perl use warnings; use strict; while (my $myvar=) { chomp($myvar); if ($myvar=~/^([A-Z])\1*$/) { print "'$myvar' matches\n"; } else { print "'$myvar' doesn't match\n"; } } __DATA__ X XXXX XXXY XXYX YXXX AAAA BBBB BBBC DDD4