#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; while () { print "INPUT LINE: $_"; my @four_constants = grep{/([bBcCdDfFgGhHjJkKlLmMnNpPqQrRsStTvVwWxXzZ]{4,}?)/g} split; #the ? allows more than a min of 4! next unless @four_constants; print "output: @four_constants", "\n"; } =EXAMPLE OUTPUT INPUT LINE: xyy xyz INPUT LINE: bBbB output: bBbB INPUT LINE: abc bacx INPUT LINE: abca xyzz INPUT LINE: abCA XXZZ output: XXZZ INPUT LINE: xxyyzzz INPUT LINE: bckz klmx output: bckz klmx INPUT LINE: BKZXXXXXXXXXXXX output: BKZXXXXXXXXXXXX =cut __DATA__ xyy xyz bBbB abc bacx abca xyzz abCA XXZZ xxyyzzz bckz klmx BKZXXXXXXXXXXXX