#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my ($startd,$stopd) = '01.12.2011 31.12.2011' =~ /^(.*)\s(.*)$/smx ; print "\$startd=$startd\n"; print "\$stopd=$stopd\n"; my $tst = { start=>$startd , stop=>$stopd }; print Dumper $tst; print q($tst->{'start'} ),"$tst->{'start'}\n"; print q($tst->{'stop'} ),"$tst->{'stop'}\n";