#! perl -w script use strict; use warnings; my $Method; my $number_of_years; $Method = 'DDD_t_s_2222_2222_01_2222'; if $Method =~ /DDD_____%/ { $number_of_years = ($yearto-$yearfrom)+1; } elsif ($Method =~ /DDD_t(.|\d){13}(\d{2})/) { if ($Method =~ /DDD_t(.|\d){14}(\d{1})/) { $number_of_years = $2; } elsif ($Method =~ /DDD_t(.|\d){13}(\d{2})/) { $number_of_years = $2; } }