c:\@Work\Perl\monks\Veltro>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le "my %RE = ( '\\\\/' => 'BackBackFwd1', '\\\/' => 'BackBackFwd2', '\\/' => 'BackFwd1', '\/' => 'BackFwd2', '/' => 'Fwd', ); dd \%RE; ;; my $rx = qr{ $RE{'\\\\/'} $RE{'\\\/'} $RE{'\\/'} $RE{'\/'} $RE{'/'} }; print $rx; " { "/" => "Fwd", "\\/" => "BackFwd2", "\\\\/" => "BackBackFwd2" } (?^: BackBackFwd2 BackBackFwd2 BackFwd2 BackFwd2 Fwd )