use strict; my $string = 'Fri Oct 13 2000 20:11:54 Page 1'; my @array = ($string, $string, $string); for (@array) { $_ =~ s/\:(\d+)\b(\s)+(\w)+(\s)+(\d)+/:$1/; } print "$array[0]\n$array[1]\n$array[2]\n\n";