my $s = 'abc123+'; $s =~ s/[^0-9+]//g; #### $s =~ s/[^0-9]+//g; #### $s = 'abc123+'; # remove any non-digit $s =~ tr/0-9//cd; # or remove any non-alphanumeric $s =~ tr/A-Za-z0-9//cd;