$dir='C:/texts/'; opendir(directory,$dir) or die "cant"; while($file=readdir directory){ next if $file=~/^\./; $rfname=$dir.$file; # print "Found file: '$rfname'\n"; open (CONT, $rfname); while (){ if($_=~m/0-3?0-9(th)?(st)?(nd)?(rd)?\s+(Jan(uary)?|Feb(ruary)?|Mar(ch)?|Apr(il)?|May|Jun(e)?|Jul(y)?|Aug(ust)?|Sep(tember)?|Oct(ober)?|Nov(ember)?|Dec(ember)?)\s+0-9?0-9?0-90-9/ig){ print "$file\t $_\n"; } elsif($_=~m/(Jan(uary)?|Feb(ruary)?|Mar(ch)?|Apr(il)?|May|Jun(e)?|Jul(y)?|Aug(ust)?|Sep(tember)?|Oct(ober)?|Nov(ember)?|Dec(ember)?)\s+1-3?0-9(th)?(nd)?(st)?(rd)?\s+0-9?0-9?0-90-9/ig){ print "$file\t $_\n"; } } }