sub nar_substitute { my @numeric_chars = ( 0 .. 9 ); my $message = shift; my @numeric_matches = ($message =~ m/\{\\d\d+\}/g); foreach (@numeric_matches) { my $substitution = $_; my ($substitution_count) = ($substitution =~ m/(\d+)/); my $number = ''; for (1..$substitution_count) { $number .= $numeric_chars[int rand @numeric_chars];; } $message =~ s[\Q$substitution][$number]e; } return $message; }