Good, but just a skosh short of a full dozen -- for lack of generality:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
# 888985

while(<DATA>) {
   my $line = $_;
   
   if($line =~ m/<.*>([^>]+)<.*>/) {
        my $new = substr($line,0,10);
        print "THE NEW LINE is : $new\n";
        print "capture only : $1\n";  # better to get the capture into
+ a named var
    }                                 # as soon as it's captured.
}

__DATA__
<html>
<head><to>tove</to></head> 
<body>
<p>now is the time<br />to deal with a line break.</p>
</body>
</html>

[download]

Output

THE NEW LINE is : <head><to>
capture only : tove
THE NEW LINE is : <p>now is
capture only : to deal with a line break.

[download]

Using substr($line,0,10); is going to fail anytime the data doesn't conform and, IMO, seems to demand that the programmer have detailed knowledge of the content (in which case, why bother?).

Omitting substr on the theory that OP really wants the captured data doesn't quite work either: Multiple tags (here, the <br /> (I think) can get swallowed up in the greediness of <.*> et seq.

Update/Clarification: Re pushing multiple lines and tags into this question, see OP's PRIOR posts on what appears to be a single project.

In reply to Re^2: use of substr() with file by ww
in thread use of substr() with file by satishchandra

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