#!perl -l my $s1 = q/X -4 Y 3 Z/; my $s2 = q/W 1 X -4 Y 3 Z/; my $s3 = q/X 2 Y/; my $s4 = q/A -4 B -4 C -4 A -4 B/; for ( $s1, $s2, $s3, $s4 ) { print for /(?=(\S+\s+-?\d+\s+\S+))/g; }