c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"sub stars { return \ ('*' x $_[0]); }
 ;;
 my $str = qq{foo-${ stars(5) }-bar};
 print qq{'$str'};
"
'foo-*****-bar'

##</code><code>##

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"sub stars { return '*' x $_[0]; }
 ;;
 my $str = sprintf 'foo%s%sbar', stars(5), '=' x 7;
 print qq{'$str'};
"
'foo*****=======bar'