I may as well take a swing at the regexp approach though File::Basename is probably a more robust solution.

Here goes...

my $string = '/whatever/filepath/and/name.dat';
my $filename;
if ( $string =~ m#/([^/]+)$# ) {
    $filename = $1;
    print $filename, "\n";
}
[download]

The regexp translated: Start by using 'm##' as the regexp delimiter instead of the more traditional m//, so that you don't have to escape the '/' character within the expresssion. Next, match the last '/' character in the string, then capture all of the rest of the characters that are not '/' through the end of the string.

This assumes that you're on an OS where path levels are delimited with '/'. You'll have to modify it if '\' is your delimiter of choice. This also assumes that there is at least one '/' in the path. ...so many assumptions, the module is probably a safer way of handling it.