use strict; my $ident="aaa bbb ccc-ddd eee fff-ggg hhh iii-jjj kkk lll-"; my @id = split /-|\s/, $ident; foreach my $i(0..$#id) { print $id[$i]; if ((($i+1) % 3) == 0) { print "\n"; } else { print ' '; } }