Hi Tom, sorry i was missing to tell, that i used the HERE script like syntax.
Here's an example: ------------------------------------ #!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $input = << "END_OF_INPUT"; Hi there! Here're some lines to match... 1st some specific ones some more and finally this one Now the list A Headline 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Some final line END_OF_INPUT printf ("### the input is <$input>###\n"); my $parser = << "END_OF_PARSER"; Hi there! Here're some lines to match... 1st some (specific) ones some more and finally this one Now the list A (Headline) (?:(\\d+)[ ]+(\\d+)[ ]+(\\d+)[ ]+(\\d+)[ ]+(\\d+)\\n)* Some final line END_OF_PARSER if ($input !~ $parser) { die "input does NOT match parser"; } my @values = ($input =~ $parser); printf ("extracted values (" . scalar(@values) . "):\n"); foreach (@values) { printf ("\t$_\n"); } printf ("\n"); ------------------------------------ It just prints: ### the input is <Hi there! Here're some lines to match... 1st some specific ones some more and finally this one Now the list A Headline 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Some final line >### extracted values (7): specific Headline 11 12 13 14 15 I.e. only the last line, that matched for #5 numbers rgds! Frank -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://learn.perl.org/