in reply to A Question on assigning variables from a big variable

Then try

my ($session_id, last_action_date, $last_action_time) =
   $session =~
   m{^(\d\d)-(\d{4}(?:-\d\d){2})-(\d\d(?::\d\d){2})$};

[download]

Cheers

JohnGG

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom