$ perl -E ' $str = q{1,2,3,,5,6,,,9,10,,,,14,15,,,,,,,,,,,,,}; $str =~ s{(?<=,)(?=,)}{0}g; say $str;' 1,2,3,0,5,6,0,0,9,10,0,0,0,14,15,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0, #### $ perl -E ' $str = q{1,2,3,,5,6,,,9,10,,,,14,15,,,,,,,,,,,,,}; $str =~ s{(?<=,)(?=,|\z)}{0}g; say $str;' 1,2,3,0,5,6,0,0,9,10,0,0,0,14,15,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0