use strict;
my $str = '2014-05-09 12:28:06 Lab bench another
2014-06-10 01:28:31 Membrane test initiated
2014-05-11 12:38:04 Membrane test initiated
2014-05-13 14:38:06 Membrane test initiated
2014-05-13 12:38:17 Membrane capacitance
2014-05-14 16:38:17 Membrane resistance ';
my $regex = qr/^(\S+)\s+/imp;
my $subst = '$1\\t';
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