#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use feature 'say'; while () { # should you need it, the value is in $2, undef if not present say $1 if m{^ \s* \#define \s+ (\S+) (?:\s+ (0|1))? \s* $}x; } __DATA__ #define thread 1 #define flag #define code 0 #define const (100/5) #define flag_condn 1