I am very new to PERL. Like first week I've tried using it. In bash I can do this:

echo hello1 hello2 hello3|awk '{ print $1 }' and it prints "hello1"

In a script I need to do a similar thing, but the data is inside a variable.

For example: echo $variable |awk '{ print $1 }'

I've tried several variations, I know I'm missing something very simple...

$time = print $error|print $F[0]; or $time = system(echo $error) | system( awk '{print $1}'); or $time = print $error | system(awk '{ print $1 }');

None work. So to make it simple.

#!/usr/bin/perl
$error = '2014-06-04T15:24:21-05:00 syslog_dp [0x80e00099][ftp][error]
+ secure-backup(FBB): trans(5487)';
$time = print $error|print $F[0];
[download]

$time should then = 2014-06-04T15:24:21-05:00