=over =item pos SCALAR X X =item pos Returns the offset of where the last C search left off for the variable in question (L|perlvar/$_> is used when the variable is not specified). This offset is in characters unless the (no-longer-recommended) L|bytes> pragma is in effect, in which case the offset is in bytes. Note that 0 is a valid match offset. L|/undef EXPR> indicates that the search position is reset (usually due to match failure, but can also be because no match has yet been run on the scalar). L|/pos SCALAR> directly accesses the location used by the regexp engine to store the offset, so assigning to L|/pos SCALAR> will change that offset, and so will also influence the C<\G> zero-width assertion in regular expressions. Both of these effects take place for the next match, so you can't affect the position with L|/pos SCALAR> during the current match, such as in C<(?{pos() = 5})> or C. Setting L|/pos SCALAR> also resets the I flag, described under L. Because a failed C match doesn't reset the offset, the return from L|/pos SCALAR> won't change either in this case. See L and L. =back