$ perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e 'substr ( $_,2,8 ) = " " && substr ( $_,15,5 ) = " " if /^AB/' (/^AB/ and substr($_, 2, 8) = (substr($_, 15, 5) = ' ')); $ perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e 'substr ( $_,2,8 ) = " " and substr ( $_,15,5 ) = " " if /^AB/' (/^AB/ and ((substr($_, 2, 8) = ' ') and substr($_, 15, 5) = ' ')); $ echo "AB2014052012345HELLOWORLD" | perl -pe 'substr ( $_,2,8 ) = " " && substr ( $_,15,5 ) = " " if /^AB/' AB 12345 WORLD $ echo "AB2014052012345HELLOWORLD" | perl -pe 'substr ( $_,2,8 ) = " " and substr ( $_,15,5 ) = " " if /^AB/' AB 12345 WORLD