c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le "use 5.014; ;; my %xlate_map = qw/ ( l_paren ) r_paren { l_curly } r_curly /; ;; sub xlate { my ($s, $hr_map) = @_; ;; my $targets = join '', map quotemeta, keys %$hr_map; return $s =~ s{ ([$targets]) }{$hr_map->{$1}}xmsgr; } ;; my $str = 'a { b } c ( d ) e {{F}} ((G))'; my $xlt = xlate($str, \%xlate_map); print qq{'$xlt'}; " 'a l_curly b r_curly c l_paren d r_paren e l_curlyl_curlyFr_curlyr_curly l_parenl_parenGr_parenr_paren'