~/$ perl -e '$string=q(GAP_SPAN09 - GAP SPAN base (Scratch Testing [TSMC11] : tsmc11_wld(sxfatd12j)) GAP_SPAN03 - GAP SPAN base (DFD E2E Testing [TSPAN04] : tspan04-dfdint-wld(sxfamd6f)) POS_WLI02 - POS_WLI02 Web Logic Integrator);@array=$string=~m/(\S+)(?= - )/g;for $record_title (@array){print "$record_title\n";}' GAP_SPAN09 GAP_SPAN03 POS_WLI02