my %subs; while () { my ($s,$r) = (split qr{/})[1,2]; $subs{lc($s)} = $r; } my $pat = join '|', map quotemeta, keys(%subs); #$xml =~ s/>[^>]*\b\K($pat)(?=\b[^>]*<)/$subs{lc($1)}/gi; #$xml =~ s/>[^>]*(?<=\W)\K($pat)(?=\W)(?=[^>]*<)/$subs{lc($1)}/gi; $xml =~ s/>[^>]*(?<=\W)\K($pat)(?=\W)/$subs{lc($1)}/gi;