I am splitting the name of a file to capture the digits at the
beginning of its name.

"11232L_rex_hav_1.abi"

I need to parse the numbers at the beginning of the filename to pass into my hash.

my %maids_hash{};
opendir (my $dhs, $seqdir);
opendir (my $dhk, $komp_dir);
while(defined($seqfile = readdir($dhs)))
{
foreach my $maids_dir(@komp){
    my @maid_id = split(/_/, $komp_dir);
    my $maid = $fields[0];
    #$maid =~ /(^\d*)/;
    my $count = ${maid} ;
    if ($count == null){
        ${maid}=1;
    }else{
        ${maid}=$count+1;
    }
        $maids_hash{$maids_dir} = $maid;
}

foreach my $maid ( keys %maids_hash ){
  if  ($maids_hash{$maid}==4){
     #call routine to do your copy logic
  }
}
[download]

I vaguely remember doing something in the past like:
my $maid = $fields[0]=~ /(^\d*)/;
Has my memory failed me?