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my $a = "x|xx|xx|xxxx|xx|xxx|xx|xx|x";
$a =~ s/(?<=\|)xx(?=\|)/x x/g;
print "[$a]\n";
__DATA__
[x|x x|x x|xxxx|x x|xxx|x x|x x|x]

$a = 'xx|xx|xx';
# should this be (use example above):
...
# combined with the first part gives you some real perl line noise
# if you want it all in a single regex
$a =~ s/^xx(?=\|)|(?<=\|)xx(?=\|)|(?<=\|)xx$/x x/g;