Using regex is kinda like hiring a bulldozer to move a couple shovels-full of dirt. Removing simple, constant strings is a perfect job for index and substr.
use strict;
my $string="Referring Hospital Triage Time <183> 2 h (N <26> 191)";
my $pre_str="Referring Hospital";
my $index = index $string, $pre_str;
die( "prefix '$pre_str' not present in string '$string'." )
unless $index >= 0;
my $len = length $pre_str;
my $copy = $string;
substr $copy, $index, $len, '';
print <<"EOMSG";
Deleting $len characters starting at postion $index of the string
$string
leaves
$copy
EOMSG
gemerates the output
Deleting 18 characters starting at postion 0 of the string
Referring Hospital Triage Time <183> 2 h (N <26> 191)
leaves
Triage Time <183> 2 h (N <26> 191)
So what do you want to do about that space that isn't part of your prefix string?
As Occam said: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
|