use strict; use warnings; my $min = 1000000; my $max = 0; while () { m/(\d+)\D+(\d+)/; $min = $1 if $1 < $min; $max = $2 if $2 > $max; } print "$min-$max"; __DATA__ 6-7 1 - 5 3 to 24 6 thru 9 2 through 11