c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le "my $s = qq{[20150302 22:01:05] [1, 2, 3, 4] String0\n [20150302 22:01:05] [1, 2, 3, 4] String1\n}; print qq{<<<$s>>>}; ;; my $t_stamp = qr{ \d{8} [ ] \d\d (?: :\d\d){2} }xms; my $timestamp = qr{ \[ $t_stamp \] }xms; ;; $s =~ s{ $timestamp \s* }{}xmsg; print qq{<<<$s>>>}; " <<<[20150302 22:01:05] [1, 2, 3, 4] String0 [20150302 22:01:05] [1, 2, 3, 4] String1 >>> <<<[1, 2, 3, 4] String0 [1, 2, 3, 4] String1 >>>