Hi, If I run this (perl 5.12): $n = "8907455758584"; @ns = $n =~ /\d{3}/g; print "@ns"; I get this: 890 745 575 858 I expected (and wanted) this: 890 907 074 745 455 557 575 758 585 858 584 I'm not sure why it's not backtracking to look at the string again? Any help is much appreciated. Regards, Iain