my $str1 = "Number 123"; $str1 =~ m/\A (? \w+ ) \s+ (? \d+ ) \z /xms; my %m1 = %+; my $str2 = "Foobar 456"; $str2 =~ m/\A (? \w+ ) \s+ (? \d+ ) \z /xms; my %m2 = %+; print "Match1: ", Dumper(\%m1), "\n"; print "Match2: ", Dumper(\%m2), "\n";