#!PERL.EXE -w use strict; print "Enter the time not necessarily in the format of \"HH:MM xm\" (^Z to quit)\n"; while (1) { print "\n\n> "; my $line=<STDIN>; $line or last; # unless ($line) { last; } chomp($line); # $i 1 2 3 if ( $line =~ m/\b([0-9]?[0-9]):([0-5][0-9]) ?(am|pm|AM|PM)\b/ ) { print "EXTRACTED:\nhours: $1\nminutes: $2\nam/pm: $3"; } else { print "WRONG TIME FORMAT!\n"; } }