#!/usr/bin/perl use 5.016; # 1027211 use Data::Dumper; my @info; my $info = '19476 2013-04-05,12:10:51.909293 host:internal.machine44.company.net main INFO Running normally with ACTION= FAN_A= FAN_B= SEND= FAILURE=<2> '; if ($info =~ /\d+\s(\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d,\d\d:\d\d:\d\d\.\d+) / ) { # excessively detailed. push @info, $1; # A well written # char_class would be # an improvement, as } # wud using quantifiers while ( $info=~ /(\w+=<.*?)>/g) { push @info, $1; } say Dumper @info;