in reply to Regex Character Class?

Yes, the \D character class will let you catch everything before the numbers in "Testing01" and "myimages2".

printf "%20s %s\n", 'job_type', '#'; while (<DATA>) { my ($job_type, $job_number) = /job: "(\D+)(\d*)"\s*$/ or next; printf "%20s %s\n", $job_type, $job_number; } __DATA__ Prefatory remarks, job: "Testing01" More remarks, job: "mymusic" Other stuff, job: "myimages2"

prints

job_type # Testing 01 mymusic myimages 2