my @array = map { chomp and $_ } ; my $want = 'Julia_Roberts'; my $change = 'Cintheia'; my ( $suffix ) = map { m/\A$want(\(\S+\))\z/smx and $1 } @array; my @final = map { ( /\A($change)\z/ and "$change$suffix" ) or $_ } @array if $suffix; warn Dumper \@final; __DATA__ Julia_Roberts(1,5) Cintheia Chelsia Rohan