>Would something like this do the trick? > $_ = $1 if /((\s*\w+:?)+)/;
True. But I need to test the line to see if it contains those '*****------******'. Otherwise how do I know that the line needs to be edited. (I am reading a file with many lines. I have to detect when the line comes with this pattern. Words, colons, a possible page break, followed by "****---****", as indicated in my earlier e mail.) Thanks for the time PS The reason I put .*? is I wanted to perform a non-greedy match on everything from the words until the "*****-----****". i am suprised that that would be incorrect. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://learn.perl.org/> <http://learn.perl.org/first-response>
