use strict;
my $str = '"NE-390-SM-04"
--> "390-SM-04"
"90055-SL-01-J"
--> "90055-SL-01"
"NE-1478-SL-02"
--> "1478-SL-02"
"87007-QM-01-J"
--> "87007-QM-01"
"NE-9315-BM-01-A"
--> "9315-BM-01"
"3121-SP-01"
--> "3121-SP-01"
"1639-YL-01"
--> "1639-YL-01"
"NE-9922-WM-01-J"
--> "9922-WM-01"
"ND-2498-YL-01"
--> "2498-YL-01"
"C-4008-PP-03-J"
--> "4008-PP-03"
"876-C-4008-PP-03-J-234"
--> "4008-PP-03"';
my $regex = qr/^.*?([0-9]+-[a-zA-Z]{2,}-[0-9]+).*/mp;
my $subst = '\\1';
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