c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "my $rx_dotdot = qr{ .. }xms; print 'A: match empty string' if '' =~ $rx_dotdot; ;; my $rx_counted = qr{ .{1}.{1} }xms; print 'B: match empty string: counted' if '' =~ $rx_counted; ;; print 'C: match empty string: counted, quantified' if '' =~ m{ $rx_counted? }xms; " C: match empty string: counted, quantified