c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le "use constant OPS => qw{ ( ( ) ) ! ! | || & && }; ;; sub compile { my ($expr, $hr_vars) = @_; ;; my %xlate = (OPS, %$hr_vars); ;; $expr =~ s{ (.) } { exists $xlate{$1} or die qq{bad: '$1' at offset $-[1] in '$expr'}; $xlate{$1}; }xmsge; ;; return $expr; } ;; my %vars = qw(Q 0 T 1 C 0); dd \%vars; ;; my $expr = '(!(C)&T)&!Q'; print qq{initial expr: '$expr'}; ;; my $final_expr = compile($expr, \%vars); print qq{ final expr: '$final_expr'}; ;; my $result = eval $final_expr; if ($@) { print qq{eval of '$final_expr' failed: $@} } else { print qq{'$final_expr' -> '$result'}; } " { C => 0, Q => 0, T => 1 } initial expr: '(!(C)&T)&!Q' final expr: '(!(0)&&1)&&!0' '(!(0)&&1)&&!0' -> '1'