# data from the database you are checking against my $data_in="90 70002 34 5"; # inputed data my $check_data="ISBN 90-70002-34-5"; $check_data=~ s/^ISBN//; $check_data=~ s/-/ /g; $check_data=~ s/^ //; unless (($data_in eq $check_data) && (!($count=~ m/[a-z]/i))){{ die "failure: data in does not match db record\n"; }