c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "my @lines = ( 'C31 6 3 2.4 1.5 2.6 ', 'C32 2 7 3 1.0 ', 'H31 1 1 0 21.0 11.2 5.3 1.4', 'T11 2 1 0 6.0 1.1 2.2', 'L06 1 1 0 1.0 3.3', 'L99 1 1 0 1.1 2.2 3.3 4.4 5.5', ); ;; my $int = qr{ (? }; my $got = my ($h, $d1, $d2, $d3, $r) = $line =~ m{ \A $extract \z }xms; ;; if ($got) { my @reals = $r =~ m{ $real }xmsg; print qq{'$h' '$d1' '$d2' '$d3' (@reals)}; } else { print 'unknown'; } } " 'C31 6 3 2.4 1.5 2.6 ' -> unknown 'C32 2 7 3 1.0 ' -> 'C32' '2' '7' '3' (1.0) 'H31 1 1 0 21.0 11.2 5.3 1.4' -> 'H31' '1' '1' '0' (21.0 11.2 5.3 1.4) 'T11 2 1 0 6.0 1.1 2.2' -> 'T11' '2' '1' '0' (6.0 1.1 2.2) 'L06 1 1 0 1.0 3.3' -> 'L06' '1' '1' '0' (1.0 3.3) 'L99 1 1 0 1.1 2.2 3.3 4.4 5.5' -> unknown