use strict; use warnings; my $list = "This is my list"; $list =~ / ^(.+) # The 'rest' (Everything before last word) (\w+) # Last 'word' (string of contiguous word characters) \W*$ # Possible non-word characters at end of string /x; my $last = $2; my $the_rest = $1; print "the_rest='$the_rest'\n"; print "last='$last'\n";