#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my @test = qw (20o3oo something 02oo-s 2o0o0o-s 2OoOO); foreach my $x (@test) { print "$x becomes "; $x =~ s|(\d[\doO]+)|my $a = $1; $a=~tr/oO/00/; $a|e; print "$x\n"; } __END__ 20o3oo becomes 200300 something becomes something 02oo-s becomes 0200-s 2o0o0o-s becomes 200000-s 2OoOO becomes 20000