my @old = ('74/05/25', '54/03/04', '69/08/23', '55/08/24'); my @new = map { join('/', ( split('/') )[1,2,0]) } @old; Produces: old: 74/05/25 new: 05/25/74 old: 54/03/04 new: 03/04/54 old: 69/08/23 new: 08/23/69 old: 55/08/24 new: 08/24/55