#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my %xlate = ('A' => 1000, 'B' => 2000, 'X' => 9999, ); while () { chomp; foreach my $ltr (my @ltrs = split(//,$_)) { print "$xlate{$ltr} " if $xlate{$ltr}; print "$ltr " if !$xlate{$ltr}; } print "\n"; } __END__ Prints: 1000 1000 2000 2000 C C 1000 C 2000 9999 1000 __DATA__ AABBCC ACBXA