#!usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; my $line = '2016-04-17 10:12:27:682011 GMT tcp 115.239.248.245:1751 -> 192.168.0.17:8080 52976f9f34d5c286ecf70cac6fba4506 04159c6111bca4f83d7d606a617acc5d6a58328d3a631adf3795f66a5d6265f4d1ec99977a5ae8cb2f3133c9503e5086a5f2ac92be196bb0c9a9f653f9669495 (312 bytes)'; my ($protocol, $ip, $port, $size)= (split /[\s:()]+/,$line)[6,7,8,-2]; print join ",",($protocol, $ip, $port, $size); print "\n"; __END__ Prints: tcp,115.239.248.245,1751,312 To test easily to find the index numbers: my @x = split /[\s:()]+/,$line; print join "\n", @x; use the line number from text editor to see indicies without counting