Not a regex, but: require 5.6; $b = eval; # assuming string to test is in $_ $a = eval '255.255.255.255'; print( ( $a | $b ) eq $a ? "Yes\n" : "No\n" ); -- John Porter A pound of cure is worth a megaton of homeopathy. ==== Want to unsubscribe from Fun With Perl? Well, if you insist... ==== Send email to <fwp-request@technofile.org> with message _body_ ==== unsubscribe