my $str = q[\\\\Srvbuild\e\ADW61\VENDOR\MICROSOFT\PLATFORMSDK\INCLUDE]; my($network, $path) = $str =~ m<^ ( (?:\\+ \w+){2} )(.*)>x; print "network - $network", $/, "path - $path", $/; __output__ network - \\Srvbuild\e path - \ADW61\VENDOR\MICROSOFT\PLATFORMSDK\INCLUDE