thank you. the question is general. if i wanted to parse a list of letters separated by spaces and commas: 'a , b,c' =~ /^(?:(\w)\s*,\s*)*(\w)$/ i need to get ['a','b'] in group 1 and ['c'] in group 2. yes, i know i can split, then massage the result some more and get the final result. is there a way to get to groups' captures after a regex match? like in microsoft's .net?