#!/usr/bin/perl -l $text = do { local $/; }; print $1 if $text =~ / ^Total\s+Datafile\s+Size\s+MB\s* # header ^-+\s* # separator ^([\d.]+) # the number I want /mix; __DATA__ Total Datafile Size MB ---------------------- 73602.1406 Total Database Size MB ---------------------- 48107.7656 Total Free Space MB ------------------- 25462.8125