c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le "print qq{Perl version $] }; ;; BEGIN { my %xlate_map = qw/ ( l_paren ) r_paren { l_curly } r_curly /; my $xlate_targets = join '', map quotemeta, keys %xlate_map; ;; sub xlate { my ($s) = @_; ;; (my $t = $s) =~ s{ ([$xlate_targets]) }{$xlate_map{$1}}xmsog; return $t; } } ;; my $str = 'a { b } c ( d ) e {{F}} ((G))'; my $xlt = xlate($str); print qq{'$xlt'}; " Perl version 5.008009 'a l_curly b r_curly c l_paren d r_paren e l_curlyl_curlyFr_curlyr_curly l_parenl_parenGr_parenr_paren'