c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "my $s = '2014-04-23 14:66:87 HEAP - [USAGE: 1948.3, FREE: 1400]; NON-HEAP - [USAGE: 611.9, FREE: 52.2]'; ;; my ($f) = $s =~ m{ FREE: \s* (\d+) }xms or die 'no FREE'; print qq{'$f'}; " '1400'