#/usr/bin/perl use strict; my $string = "0815 /irgend/ein/lustiger/pfad/zu-einer.rrd 1193741121:0 1193741121:1"; my $count = 0; $count = $string =~ tr/ //; my $regex = "([0-9]{1,3})\ ([0-9A-Za-z\/\.\-]*)"; for(my $i = 2; $i<$count; $i++) { $regex .="\ ([0-9\:]*)"; } $regex .="*/"; print $regex."\n"; $string =~m/($regex)/; print "count= ".$count."|".$1."|".$2."|".$3."|".$4."|".$5."|".$6."\n";