#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; use feature qw{ say }; my @pchr = qw( K Q R B N P ); my $w1 = 'QRKPNBQ'; # <- Q is repeated! my $w2 = join "", map $_ x (() = $w1 =~ /$_/g), @pchr; say "$w1 \-> $w2";