$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my $find = q{#define MYVERSION }; my $flen = length $find; my @strings = ( q{#define MYVERSION 11}, q{#define MYVERSION 9}, q{#define MYVERSION 99} ); for (@strings) { say; substr($_, $flen) = substr($_, $flen) + 1; say; } ' #define MYVERSION 11 #define MYVERSION 12 #define MYVERSION 9 #define MYVERSION 10 #define MYVERSION 99 #define MYVERSION 100