#!/usr/bin/perl open (AB, "data.txt"); while ($line = ) { # print $line; if ($line =~ /^((\w+\s+)+)(\d+)\s+(-{0,1}\d+)\s*$/) { $name = $1; $count = $3; $sum = $4; print qq{ Candidate: $name has $count votes (sum is $sum) }; } } close(AB);