#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; use feature 'say'; my $queuecmd = 'queues.txt'; open(my $fh, '<', $queuecmd) or die "Could not open: '".$queuecmd."' $!"; chomp(my @lines= <$fh>); close $fh or warn "Could not close: '".$queuecmd."' $!"; print Dumper \@lines; my @queues = grep {s/.*count= *(\d+),.* Queue=or_event_queue\s*/$1/} @lines; say $queues[0]; __END__ $ perl test.pl $VAR1 = [ 'Host \'server02\' connected', '============================================================', 'Hostname: \'server02\'', ' count= 0, delivering= 0, Queue=opr_action_launch_queue', ' count= 0, delivering= 0, Queue=queue/alert_engine_notification', ' count= 3079, delivering= 0, Queue=or_event_queue', ' count= 0, delivering= 0, Queue=recipient_notification', ' count= 0, delivering= 0, Queue=queue/alert_engine_alert', ' count= 0, delivering= 0, Queue=failed_recipient_notification' ]; 3079