%madname = ( ## Uppercase easy to see in the story file "NOUN" => "a noun", "VERB" => "a verb", "ADJ" => "an adjective"); $storyfile = shift or die "I need a filename!\n"; open(STORY, "$storyfile") || die "Could not open $storyfile: $!\n"; while () { push(@lines, $_); ## Count total inserted words while (m/\[(NOUN|VERB|ADJ)\]/g) { $madlib{$1}++; } } close(STORY); for $x (sort keys %madlib) { for $y (1..$madlib{$x}) { print "Please give me $madname{$x}: "; chomp($answer{$x.$y} = ); } $madlib{$x}=1; ## reset this } ## Tricky part... for (@lines) { s/\[(NOUN|VERB|ADJ)\]/$answer{$1.$madlib{$1}++}/ge; print; } exit;