in reply to $1 into an array

Not to invalidate Wonko the sane's excellent advice, but try this:
use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my @slot; my $dpdrivloc = "MSL6000 Trinity"; my $regex = qr/\Q$dpdrivloc\E:\s*(\d+)/; # ... open DPSLOTFILE ... while ( <DPSLOTFILE> ) { if (my ($numb) = $_ =~ $regex) { push @slot, $numb; } } print Dumper \@slot;

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)