#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; # https://perlmonks.org/?node_id=11139917 use warnings; while( ) { my @pos; push @pos, @-, @+ while /\t+/g; @pos or @pos = (-1) x 2; print "@pos\n"; } __DATA__ foo bar baz foo bar foo baz ccc ddd foo bar foo baz ccc ddd foo bar baz foo bar foo baz ccc ddd foo