>perl -wMstrict -le "my $js = q{[{feedId:6161,feedType:'forum'},{feedId:1469,feedType:'category'}]}; $js =~ s{ : }{ => }xmsg; print $js; my @array = eval qq{ \@{ $js } }; use Data::Dumper; print Dumper \@array; " [{feedId => 6161,feedType => 'forum'},{feedId => 1469,feedType => 'category'}] $VAR1 = [ { 'feedId' => 6161, 'feedType' => 'forum' }, { 'feedId' => 1469, 'feedType' => 'category' } ];