my $string = "1234,Dr,Huxtable,Cliff,M,24/12/1976,60"; my $last_two_chars = substr($string, -2, 2); print $last_two_chars . "\n"; #### my $temp_col_id = 0; my %COLUMN_IDS_BY_NAME = map {$_, $temp_col_id++} qw(num1 title surname firstname sex dob num2); my @split_data = split /,/, $string; print $split_data[$COLUMN_IDS_BY_NAME{num1}] . "\n"; print $split_data[$COLUMN_IDS_BY_NAME{title}] . "\n"; print $split_data[$COLUMN_IDS_BY_NAME{firstname}] . "\n"; # etc...