You are not checking if the regex matched before you use the value of $1.

Changing the guts of your code to the following may give you the desired result. 

    if( $line =~ /\s+<\w+\/?>(.*)<\/\w+>/ )
    {
        $line = $1;
        print "$line\n";
    }
    else
    {
        print "no match\n";
    }

[download]
Output: 
First_Table
no match

[download]

Finally, why did you comment out use strict, and if you're parsing what appears to be XML or HTML, why not use a parser?

In reply to Re: how to empty the built in variable by bobf
in thread how to empty the built_in variable by jesuashok

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