my $text = slurp_file($a_file_name); my @lines = split /^----.*$/, $text; for (@lines) { if (/CREATE TABLE TEMP\.(.*)/) { say $1; } } sub slurp_file { local $/; my $file_name = shift; open my $FH, '<', $file_name or die "$file_name: $!"; return <$FH>; }