c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le "my $text = 'foo ~0.00 bar 1.0 fee 0.2 baz 0.03 boff -0.09 zot 10.09'; my @lag_util = $text =~ m{ ~? \d+ [.] \d+ }xmsg; dd \@lag_util; " ["~0.00", "1.0", "0.2", "0.03", "0.09", "10.09"]