#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; my $re = qr/(\(((?:(?>[^()]+)|(?1))*)\))'/; for my $given ( "(A & B)'", "((A & B)' | (A & C & (A & B & D)'))", "((A | B)' & (C | (D & (E & F)))')'", ) { my $calc = $given; $calc =~ s/$re/!($2)/g while $calc =~ /'/; print "Given: $given\n"; print "Calculated: $calc\n"; }