Win8 Strawberry 5.8.9.5 (32) Thu 12/17/2020 23:11:18 C:\@Work\Perl\monks >perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings my $string = " info info 100 - 2000 Kent"; my $word = "info"; $string =~ /$word\s*?(\S+)/g; my $next_word = $1; my $nwo = $-[1]; # offset of start of capture $string =~ /\s*?(\S+)/g; my $next_word_2 = $1; my $nwo_2 = $-[1]; print "The next word after $word is $next_word @ $nwo \n"; print "The next word or number after $next_word is $next_word_2 @ $nwo_2 \n"; ^Z The next word after info is info @ 27 The next word or number after info is 100 @ 50