Yisha sharma:

Generally if you have a question like that, you look up the appropriate operator, statement or whatever in the docs. In this case, you could read perldoc perlop to find the documentation for the s/// operator (it's in the "quote-like operator" section), or you could just experiment with it a little and find out, like:

$ cat tu.pl
while (<DATA>) {
    #$tmp = s/\*/\$lvl=/g; # LTS!
    $tmp = s{\*}{\$lvl=}g; # ?better?

    print "$_ : $tmp\n";
}
__DATA__
now is *the* time!
just how many asterisks? *****

$ perl tu.pl
now is $lvl=the$lvl= time!
 : 2
just how many asterisks? $lvl=$lvl=$lvl=$lvl=$lvl=
 : 5

 :
[download]

Update: I agree that I coulda done better with this node, davido's is much better. I sometimes forget how daunting the perl docs can be when starting. (Even now, I sometimes have a little time figuring out which perldoc to read for some topics.) I also changed the code to use an alternate form of the s/// operator to avoid Leaning Toothpick Syndrome (LTS).

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.