while() { chomp; my ( @bits, $rest ); ( $bits[0], $rest ) = split ':', $_, 2; $bits[0] =~ tr/()//d; push @bits, ($rest =~ m!\(([^)]+)!g) if $rest; print "@bits\n"; } __DATA__ OFF SUCCESS: (abc) ERROR(1): disk number (27) crashed at (11:03) WARNING(1): system is rebooting