>perl -wMstrict -le "my @data = ( '1. for future assistance toss', '* You can also toss', 'Page 2, toss', '12345 keep this', '... keep this', ); ;; for my $datum (@data) { print qq{how about '$datum'?}; next if $datum =~ /^[\pL\pN.*]/; print qq{keep it}; } " how about '1. for future assistance toss'? how about '* You can also toss'? how about 'Page 2, toss'? how about '12345 keep this'? how about '... keep this'?