use Time::Local; my $time1 = '010101112245'; my $time2 = '010101114556'; foreach ($time1, $time2){ my @t = $time1 =~ /(\d\d)(\d\d)(\d\d)(\d\d)(\d\d)(\d\d)/; @t = reverse @t; $_ = timelocal(@t); } print "Difference is: ", ($time1 -$time2), "\n";