Perl Regex for Phil

regex.pl

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use Data::Dumper;

my $text = <<'END';
John has Acquired Immunodeficiency Synodrom (AIDS), while Steve has Human Immunodeficiency Synodrom (HIV).
END

my @split = $text =~ /
  (		#capture (full name of disease)
    (?:			#group
      \b			#word boundary
      \p{Lu}{1}			#exactly one unicode uppercase letter
      \w*			#any additional word characters
      \b			#word boundary
      \s*?			#(minimally) any whitespace
    )+			#one or more occurances of group (end group)
  )		#end capture
  \s*		#any whitespace
  \(		#open paren
  (\w+)		#capture one or more word chars (abbreviation)
  \)		#close paren 
/gx;

die "Uneven List" if @split % 2;

my %abbr;
while ( @split ) {
  my $value = shift @split;
  my $key = shift @split;

  if (exists $abbr{$key}) {
    warn "Overwriting abbreviation $key! Was: $abbr{$key}.\n";
  }

  $abbr{$key} = $value;
}

print Dumper \%abbr;