#!/usr/bin/perl -- use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dump qw/ dd /; open my($DATA), '<', \q{ Name -> Name of the person,Path -> include \\path1\\path2\file.txt #user: machinename\name #log forward #Date setup: 12/01/2010 # can be n number of line Name -> Name of the person }; my @tokens; while(<$DATA>){ m{^\s*$}mgcsx and do { push @tokens, ['BLANK', $_ ]; next; }; m{^([#].*)}mgcsx and do { push @tokens, ['COMMENT', $1 ]; next; }; m{\QName -> \E([^,]+)}mgcsx and do { push @tokens, ['NAME', $1 ]; }; m{\QPath -> include \E([^\r\n]+)}mgcsx and do { push @tokens, ['PATH_INCLUDE', $1 ]; }; } dd(\@tokens); __END__ [ ["BLANK", "\n"], ["NAME", "Name of the person"], ["PATH_INCLUDE", "\\\\path1\\\\path2\\file.txt"], ["COMMENT", "#user: machinename\\name\n"], ["COMMENT", "#log forward\n"], ["COMMENT", "#Date setup: 12/01/2010\n"], ["COMMENT", "# can be n number of line\n"], ["NAME", "Name of the person\n"], ]