sub notBalanced { my $brace= 1 < @_ ? $_[1] : "{}"; my $start= substr( $brace, 0, length($brace)/2 ); my $end= substr( $brace, length($brace)/2 ); my $depth= 0; for( split /[^\Q$brace\E]*/, $_[0] ) { if( index($start,$_) ) { $depth++; } elsif( index($end,$_) ) { return -1 if --$depth < 0; } } return $depth; }