sub append_n
{
      my ( $str, $array ) = @_;
      my $nstring = "N" x length($str);
      pos($str)=0;  # reset the search position on $str
      foreach my $sbstr ( @$array )
      {
        $str=~/$sbstr/g and
            substr ($nstring, $-[0], length($sbstr)) = $sbstr
      }   
      return $nstring;
}