my $substr = 'SUMMARY'; my $offset = 0; my $result = index($string, $substr, $offset); while ($result != -1) { print "$result\n"; $offset = $result + 1; $result = index($string, $substr, $offset);} my $SUM1= "298"; my $SUM2="877"; my $length = $SUM2-$SUM1; my $fragment = substr $string, 298, $length; #print " string: <$string>\n"; print " <$fragment>\n";