#!PERL.EXE -w use strict; print "Enter the price not necessarily in the format of \"\$123.45\" (^Z to quit)\n"; while (1) { print "\n\n> "; my $line=<STDIN>; $line or last; # unless ($line) { last; } chomp($line); # $i 12 3 if ( $line =~ m/\b(([0-9]+)\.([0-9]{2}))\b/ ) { print "EXTRACTED: number $1 which is $2 dollars and $3 cents"; } else { print "WRONG PRICE FORMAT!\n"; } }