my $inputdata = '[URL]http://www.perl-community.de[/uRL]'; my $search1 = '\[URL\]'; my $search2 = '\[/[Uu]RL\]'; my @data1 = split($search1,$inputdata); my @data2 = split($search2,$data1[1]); my $link = $data2[0]; print $link;