my $sql = do {local $/; <>}; $sql =~ s/\( ([^()]+) \) , \n\)/($1)\n)/x; print $sql; #### C:\Users\...>perl -i.bak chop-sql-comma.pl CUSTOMER_NEW.txt #### perl -Mv5.14.0 -i.bak -e^ "local $/;print <> =~ s/\( ([^()]+) \) , \n\)/($1)\n)/xr"^ CUSTOMER_NEW.txt