echo "1-2 2009-08-29 08:54:42;2-3 2009-09-02 01:29:29;3-4 2009-09-03 08:24:46;4-5 2009-09-10 08:50:28;5-6 2010-06-29 08:26:43;6-7 2010-09-03 10:45:47;7-8 2012-04-01 23:00:22;8-9 2012-04-28 12:09:22;9-10 2012-05-30 03:34:59;10-11 2014-11-30 09:34:57;11-12 2015-06-17 08:24:20" | \ \ perl -nE '@a=split(/;/);for(@a){($a,$b)=split(/\s+(?=\d{4})/);say "$a: $b";}' 1-2: 2009-08-29 08:54:42 2-3: 2009-09-02 01:29:29 3-4: 2009-09-03 08:24:46 4-5: 2009-09-10 08:50:28 5-6: 2010-06-29 08:26:43 6-7: 2010-09-03 10:45:47 7-8: 2012-04-01 23:00:22 8-9: 2012-04-28 12:09:22 9-10: 2012-05-30 03:34:59 10-11: 2014-11-30 09:34:57 11-12: 2015-06-17 08:24:20 # ^^^^^^^^^^ <- today of all days :)