use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my ( $ipaddress, $prefix, $interface, $device, $location) = ('no_ws', ' some_ws ', undef, ' lotsa ws ', undef); s/^\s+|\s+$//g for grep {defined $_} ( $ipaddress, $prefix, $interface, $device, $location); print Dumper ( $ipaddress, $prefix, $interface, $device, $location);