my @strs = ("1234 pass 25 30 1", " pass 25 30 2", "1965 pass 35 45 1", " pass 35 45 2"); foreach my $sample (@strs) { if (ord($sample) == 32) { say "Matched: " . $sample; } } __END__ $ perl test.pl Matched: pass 25 30 2 Matched: pass 35 45 2