my @input_array = ("href=\"/something/something1/html\"",
                     "href=\"/abc.html\"",
                     "href=\"blah.html\"",
                     "href=\"/dir1/dir2/dir3/test\"")

##</code><code>##

   foreach $array_element (@input_array) {
      my ($href_text, $href_directory) = split /=/, $array_element;
      ### now take off the leading and trailing double quotes ###
      my $href_dir_no_quotes = "";
      if ($href_directory =~ /^"(.*)"$/) {
          $href_dir_no_quotes = $1;
      }
   }