#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

sub fixn($) {
    my $str = "@_";
    $str =~ s/[^a-zA-Z0-9^_\-\\`\.\[\]\{\}~]//g;
    return $str;
}

sub fixn2 {          # no prototype needed
    my $str = shift; # since we only ever want 1 argument
                     # which will be converted to a string
                     # if needed anyway.
    $str =~ s/[^a-zA-Z0-9^_\-\\`\.\[\]\{\}~]//g;
    return $str;
}

my $input = 'a b \\ c d';
print "input='$input'\n";
my $myvar = fixn($input);
print "myvar='$myvar'\n";
my $better = fixn2($input);
print "better='$better'\n";




##</code><code>##

input='a b \ c d'
myvar='ab\cd'
better='ab\cd'

##</code><code>##

 $var = "bla[abc]\\t";  # $var contains bla[abc]\t
 /$var/;      # is equivalent to /bla[abc]\t/
 /\Q$var\E/;  # is equivalent to /bla\[abc\]\\t/