use strict; use warnings; use Test::More; my $in = 'A |simple*example| is |so*simple| to come*up |with these*days| according to some *experts*'; my $exp = 'A |simple-example| is |so-simple| to come*up |with these-days| according to some *experts*'; my $start = qr/\|/; my $stop = qr/\|/; my $got = join "", map { /$start/.../$stop/ ? s/\*/-/gr : $_ } split /($start|$stop)/s, $in; is($got,$exp); done_testing;