use warnings; use strict; gf (); gf (); sub gf { my $ins1 = '4 A -4 C -4 B 1 D'; my @inserts; $ins1 =~ /^[\d+-]+/g; push @inserts, $ins1 =~ /\G(?: \w ([\d+-]+))/g; print join(' ', @inserts), "\n"; }