note wind <p>Just rely on the fact that the second item is the only one that allows spacing:</p> <c> use strict; use warnings; while (<DATA>) { if (/^(\S+)\s+(.*\S)\s+(\S+)\s+(\S+)$/) { print "A:B = $1\n"; print "C/D/E/F = $2\n"; print "G/H/I = $3\n"; print "J = $4\n"; } else { warn "Invalid record: $_"; } } __DATA__ >cds:ADD75048 A/Brussels/INS71/2009 2009/10/30 HA >cds:ADF58353 A/Germany-MV/HGW4/2009 2009/12/ HA >cds:ADF58351 A/Germany-MV/HGW6/2009 2009/12/ HA >cds:ADU76781 A/England/94780010/2009 2009/10/22 HA >cds:AEA30293 A/Netherlands/2223b/2009 2009/11/18 HA >cds:ADD23250 A/District of Columbia/INS17/2009 2009/10/26 HA >cds:ADX98640 A/San Diego/INS13/2009 2009/10/19 HA >cds:ADD74978 A/San Diego/INS54/2009 2009/10/12 HA >cds:ADF27925 A/Texas/JMS407/2010 2010/01/11 HA >cds:ADM95824 A/Finland/661/2009 2009/10/26 HA >cds:ADD97035 A/Wisconsin/629-D00036/2009 2009/09/15 HA </c> 911807 911807