use 5.010; my @lines = ("ip:192.168.243.1", "ip:192.168.243.2" =~ /(ip:[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3})/); say for @lines; __END__ ip:192.168.243.1 ip:192.168.243.2