my @slots = qw(option color whom); my $message = 'If you choose a yellow car everyone will follow you!'; my $my_trigger = qr/If you (.*) a (.*) car (.*) will follow you!/; my %hash; if (@hash{@slots} = $message =~ /$my_trigger/) { for my $slot (@slots) { print "$slot: $hash{$slot}\n"; } }