use strict; my $a="123-135, 111-119, 127-130, 140-145"; print "Original : $a\n"; my @a = split (/\, /, $a); eval{s/^(\d{2})(\d+)\-(\d{2})(\d+)$/&digit($1,$2,$3,$4)/egsi;} for (@a); print "Changed : "; print "$_\t" for @a; sub digit{ my ($f, $f1, $s, $s1)=@_; if ($f == $s){ $s=$s1; } else{ $s=~s/\d//; $s.=$s1; } return qq($f$f1-$s); }