use strict; use warnings; my $templateformat = 'wbcmsw'; $_ = 'w8b8cm512swno'; my(@values, @names, $val); # In the example, @h will be ('w', 'NM', 'b', 'NM', 'cm', 'CH', 'sw', 'SW') my @h = $templateformat =~ /(\w+)<(\w+)>/g; for (my $ix=0; $ix + 1 < @h; $ix += 2){ push(@names, $h[$ix +1]); # Match up to the next piece of template if($ix + 2 < @h){ ($val, $_) = /$h[$ix](.+)($h[$ix +2].+)/ or die 'bad middle'} # or match to the end if there's no next piece else{ ($val) = /$h[$ix](.+)/ or die 'bad end'}; push(@values, $val)}; local($,, $\ ) = ("\t", "\n"); print(@names); print(@values);