sub get_groups { my @groups = (); my $level = 0; my $group = ""; #Keep on increasing the level once you find the opening brace. #After coming out of loop, level should be again 0 foreach my $val ( split //, shift ) { next if $val =~/\s/; if ( $level == 0 && !($val ~~ [ "(", ")" ]) ) { push @groups, $val; next; } if ( $level != 0 && !($val ~~ [ "(", ")" ]) ) { $group.=$val; next; } if ( $val eq "(" && $level==0) { $level++;$group = ""; next; } if ( $val eq "(" && $level!=0) { $level++;$group .= "("; next; } if ( $val eq ")" && $level==1) {$level--;push @groups, $group; $group = ""; next; } if ( $val eq ")" && $level!=1) {$level--;$group .= ")"; next; } } print Dumper(@groups); } ## ---------- end sub get_groups