use Data::Dump qw{dump}; $data = do { local $/ = undef; }; # in single call dump [ scalar($data =~ s/\n/\n/g), scalar($data =~ s/(\w+)/\1/g), length($data) ]; # in multiple calls dump [ scalar($data =~ s/\n/\n/g) ]; dump [ scalar($data =~ s/(\w+)/\1/g) ]; dump [ length($data) ]; __DATA__ Line1 Word Something Line2 Other Word #### [6, 6, 38] [2] [6] [38]