#!/usr/bin/perl -w

$string = "Test: FileNames can't have / \\ and other special characters";

$string =~ s/(.*):(.*)\/(.*)\\(.*)/$1COLON$2FSLASH$3BSLASH$4/; # Note greedy substituion in place

print $string,$/;

my %subs = qw(: COLON / FSLASH \\\\ BSLASH);

$string =~ s/$_/$subs{$_}/ for (keys %subs);

print $string,$/;

##</code><code>##

TestCOLON FileNames can't have FSLASH BSLASH and other special characters
TestCOLON FileNames can't have FSLASH BSLASH and other special characters