my @msgs = ("Thu Oct 18 21:26:36 2007: Time for all triggers in report period (300s): 1.330981s", "Thu Oct 18 21:27:36 2007: Time for all triggers in report period (600s): 1.457271s", "Thu Oct 18 21:28:36 2007: Time for all triggers in report period (60s): 1.340150s"); for my $msg (@msgs) { if ($msg =~ /Time for all triggers in report period \((\d+)s\)/) { my $time = ${1}; # Insert your logic here... if ( $time >= 600) { print "Time ($time) >= 600\n"; } elsif($time >= 300) { print "Time ($time) >= 300\n"; } elsif($time >= 60 ) { print "Time ($time) >= 60\n"; } else { print "Time ($time) < 60\n"; } } }