BEGIN { my %mapping = ( "\t" => ' -> ', " " => chr(0267), "\n" => chr(0266)."\n", "\266" => '%B6', "\267" => '%B7', ); my $pattern = qr/([@{[join '', keys %mapping]}])/; sub show { my @data = @_; s/$pattern/$mapping{$1}/g for (@data); return wantarray ? @data : join'',@data; } }