Hello anirudhkumar_r,

Update: parv’s solution is simpler, therefore better!

To prevent recursive replacement, you can use negative look-behind assertions as follows:

#! perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $s = '< < &xyz >abc 123>456 me&you';
   $s =~ s/ (?<!&amp;) &lt; /</gx;
   $s =~ s/ (?<!&amp;) &gt; />/gx;
   $s =~ s/     &amp;lt;    /&lt;/gx;
   $s =~ s/     &amp;gt;    /&gt;/gx;
   $s =~ s/     &amp;       /&/gx;

print $s;
[download]

Output:

22:03 >perl 1084_SoPW.pl
&lt; < &xyz &gt;abc 123>456 me&you
22:03 >
[download]

See “Look-Around Assertions” in perlre#Extended-Patterns.

Hope that helps,