$text="Tommy tom ticked a tick at the ticket counter";
$t_count=($text=~ y/[tT]/t/);
print "This text has $t_count Ts\n";

#result
#This text has 9 Ts

##</code><code>##

$_ = "1.0 and 2.4 and 310 and 4.7 and so on";
@a = m/([\d|\.]+)\D+/g;
print "@a\n";

#result
#1.0 2.4 310 4.7