use strict; use warnings; my @array = ('A1', 'A2', 'A3', \$1, '$2'); my $message = 'If you choose a yellow car everyone will follow you!'; my $my_trigger = 'If you (.*) a (.*) car (.*) will follow you!'; if ($message =~ m/$my_trigger/g) { my $option = ${$array[3]}; my $color = $2; my $whom = $3; print "option: " . $option; print "\ncolor: " . $color; print "\nwhom: " . $whom; }