#!/usr/bin/perl -w use Env; my $re = qr/]* # an anchor tag href= # the Href in the anchor (["'])((?:(?!\1).)*)\1 # the value in the href [^>]*> # anything to the end of the anchor [^<>]* # the content in the anchor tag <\/a> # the end of the anchor (?:\s|<[^>]*>)+ # any whitespace or html tags (\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}) # the 9 digit number /isxm ; open (DATA,$ARGV[0]) ; my $string = do{local $/; }; while($string =~ m/$re/g){ my $name = $1 ; my $STMT_FILE = $2 ; my $DOB = $3 ; print "Date of Birth is: $DOB -- Statement File: $STMT_FILE\n" ; }