Perl critic error on splitting string into array using regexp

Question

sub func {
    my ($n) = @_;
    return unless ($n);
    my @array;
    push @array, $1 while $n =~ /
            ((?:
              [^(),]+ |
              ( \(
                (?: [^()]+ | (?2) )*
              \) )
            )+)
            (?: ,\s* | $)
            /xg;

    return \@array;
    }

    for my $item (@array) {
        if (index($item, '$n') != -1) {
           print "HELLO\n";
        }
} 

I have above regex to split some string into array. It works fine.

Problem is :

Perl critic gives below errors. Please advise how do i fix this.

Capture variable used outside conditional at line 150, 
    near 'push @array, $1 while $n =~ /'.  (Severity: 3)

Use '{' and '}' to delimit multi-line regexps at line 150, 
    near 'push @input_expression, $1 while $n =~ /'.  (Severity: 1)

String *may* require interpolation at line 168, 
    near '$item, '$n''.  (Severity: 1)

Answer 1

Perl Critic doesn't give any errors. It gives policy violations.

To fix the first one, change the loop from modifier to normal while loop and name the variable:

    while ($n =~ /
        ...

    /xg) {
        my $match = $1;
        push @array, $match;
    }

To fix the second one, just change /.../ to m{...}.

In my opinion, it makes little sense to use policies you don't understand well. Sometimes, there might be very good reasons to break some of them; blindly following Perl Critic (especially at more stern levels) doesn't bring you anything.

Answer 2

The first one is IMO a false positive, since while is acting as the conditional here - the push @array, $1 won't get executed unless the regexp matched, which is what the policy wants (add --verbose 11 to the perlcritic invocation to see the explanations). This is a case where I think it's safe to suppress the policy, as I show below.

The second one is easy to fix, simply replace $n =~ /.../xg with $n =~ m{...}xg.

push @array, $1  ## no critic (ProhibitCaptureWithoutTest)
    while $n =~ m{ ... }xg;

That suppresses those two messages.

As a side note, running perlcritic at brutal severity is IMO a little extreme, and it'll complain about a lot of other stuff in that snippet. Personally, when I use it, I run perlcritic at harsh (-3) with a few policies at customized levels.

Edit: As for your third perlcritic message, which you added to your post later, it looks like that's been answered in your other post.