my $re = qr{ ( (?: \d{1,2}/ ){2} \d{1,2} ) }x; while( my $line = ) { while( $line =~ m/ $re /gx ) { print "Line: $.\t Column: ", $-[0], "\tMatched: $1\n"; } } __DATA__ ME170-5/2/8-ME172-2/2/6-ME4028 ME172-2/1/2-ME196-1/1/3-ME4002