use strict; use warnings; for my $string ( '/Unixish path/with/spaces in places/and a file name with spaces', 'file name only - with spaces', '/nice/no/spaces/path/and/filename' ) { if ($string =~ m!(.*/)?(.*)!) { print "Path = '$1', Filename = '$2'\n"; } elsif ($string =~ /(\S+)/) { print "No path, Filename = '$2'\n"; } } #### Path = '/Unixish path/with/spaces in places/', Filename = 'and a file name with spaces' Path = '', Filename = 'file name only - with spaces' Path = '/nice/no/spaces/path/and/', Filename = 'filename'