With the clarification in "Re 3", this should give you an approach:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
# 812662
my @data = ('<td class="c"><input type="hidden" name="recid5" value="1
+0293424">2009/08</td>',
'<td class="c">foobar - Item "123": <b>8</b></td
+>'
);
for my $data(@data) {
if ($data =~ /"hidden"/ && $data =~ /value="([^"]+)/ ) {
print "Hidden value: $1 \n";
}else{
print "Nothing hidden in \$data: $data\n";
}
}
Output: Hidden value: 10293424
Nothing hidden in $data: <td class="c">foobar - Item "123":
+<b>8</b></td>
Update: else {...} added for clarity and output updated |