>perl -wMstrict -le "my @test = ( 'text text text 1 text', '1 text text text 2 text 3 ', 'text 1 text text 2 text', 'text text text 1 text 2 3.0', '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11', 'text 0', 'text 3.1', 'text text text text', ); ;; 'Zonk' =~ m{ (\w+) }xms; ;; my @filtered = map {/(\d+)(?:\.0*)?\D*$/; $1} @test; printf qq{'$_' } for @filtered; print qq{\n}; ;; @filtered = map {/(\d+(?:\.\d*)?)\D*$/; 0 + $1 || ''} @test; printf qq{'$_' } for @filtered; print qq{\n}; ;; @filtered = map { m{ (\d+) (?: [.] \d*)? \D* \z }xms ? $1 : '' } @test ; printf qq{'$_' } for @filtered; print qq{\n}; " '1' '3' '2' '3' '11' '0' '1' 'Zonk' Argument "Zonk" isn't numeric in addition (+) at -e line 1. '1' '3' '2' '3' '11' '' '3.1' '' '1' '3' '2' '3' '11' '0' '3' ''