c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "my $s = 'RcdA|CON|139|||Kan|13|J|J|607|abc@gmail.com'; print qq{'$s'}; ;; $s =~ s{ (?: [|] [^|]*){4} \z }{}xms; print qq{'$s'}; " 'RcdA|CON|139|||Kan|13|J|J|607|abc@gmail.com' 'RcdA|CON|139|||Kan|13'