my ($date_stamp,$event,$alert_id,$status); my $str = '2001/03/12 time>Event [21]Alert Completed (34562), Status: [22] Alert Completed,MN_netware-support'; ($date_stamp,$event,$alert_id,$status) = $str =~ /^([\d\/]+).*?(Event.*?ed) \((\d+)\), (.*)$/; print "[$date_stamp]\n"; print "[$event]\n"; print "[$alert_id]\n"; print "[$status]\n";