c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "use Data::Dump qw(dd); ;; my @lines = ( 'line 1 this line has no Foo number: keep', 'line 2 Foo something 1234-12.3 other 123 first valid keep', 'TOSS 3 Foo toss this 1234-12.3 line 123 DELETE', 'line 4 Foo not same 1234-12.3 offset 123 line keep', 'line 5 Foox not tag 1234-12.3 same offset 123 keep', 'line 6 has no Foo number: keep', 'line 7 Foo yyyy xxx 1234-12.3 this line keep', 'line 8 Foo xxxx zzzz 1234-12.4 different n keep', 'TOSS 9 Foo kill this 1234-12.3 one DELETE', 'line 10 no Foo number: keep', ); dd \@lines; print qq{\n}; ;; my $strange_n = qr{ (?