thanks ikegami. i don't get the " won't compile comments"..

>type 754047.pl
$value =~ s/\D//g;
$value =~ $1
if( $value =~ /(\d+)/ ){
  $value =~ $1
} else {
  undef $value;
}


>perl -c 754047.pl
syntax error at 754047.pl line 3, near "){"
754047.pl had compilation errors.
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the two lines fix a bug in the script which "seems" to be working ok on my host now..??

Seems is the operative word

my $value = "abc456def";

$_ = $value;
$value = m/(\d+)/;

print "$value\n";   # Prints 1, not 456
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Fix:

my $value = "abc456def";

$_ = $value;
($value) = m/(\d+)/;

print "$value\n";   # Prints 456
[download]

A more elegant version that doesn't clobber a global:

my $value = "abc456def";

($value) = $value =~ m/(\d+)/;

print "$value\n";   # Prints 456
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oh.. i get it.. i thought the not working code was referring to my 2 lines, not the other segment (i didn't bother to look at it as i wanted a shorter model).

yes my code seemed to work. but actually was not. your suggestion fixed it perfectly.

thanks again.

beware the farmers.