use strict; use warnings; my $str = "otsort ../mydata/SKE_DE_WKey_out.dat ../mydata/SKE_DE_WKey_out.srt /apost s(1001,8,c,a) om(1001,1,c,EQ,' ') f(fix,1371) core(60000)"; print "$str\n"; $str =~ s/\/apost s/\"\/apost s/; print "$str\n"; $str =~ s/ om\(/,om\(/; print "$str\n"; $str =~ s/ f\(fix.*/,record(1371)/; print "$str\n";