#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; # set up our changes my @lines = qw( This=That Some=Song ); my %changes = ( This => 'Other', Some => 'Corny' ); foreach my $line (@lines) { # for all the money $line =~ s/([^=]+)=/$changes{$1} . "="/e; } print join("\n", @lines), "\n";