Thanks for the responses, guys.
given the following sequence, with spaces between the digits and a newline at the end
3 2 1/2 3 2 1 1/2 1 5 1/4
why for
if ($restrace =~/^(\d{0,2}\s\w{0,4}|\d\/\d|\d{0,2}\s\d\/\d|\d{0,2})\s(.*)/){
does $1 contain 3 2 instead of 3 2 1/2 why...