use strict; use warnings; my $line = 'Width = 32'; if($line =~ m/^Width[\s]*\=[\s]*(\d+)$/) # to match Width { print "Width found: $1\n" } elsif ($line =~ m/^Descr[\s]*-[\s]*[\w]+$/) # to match Descr { print 'Descr found' } else { printf "Garbage found: \"%s\" \n",$line; }