use strict;
my $str = 'xi-AN224432_-_this_is_some_text-x10.pdf
xi-F1800X7T2P5P-blahblah-v01_00-EN.pdf
1E303S-blahblah-v01_20-EN.pdf';
my $regex = qr/^(xi-)?(([A-Za-z0-9]+)_?)-.*/mp;
my $subst = '$2 or $3';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html