in reply to How can I replace the pattern in the 6 th field?

Count the brackets, start replacing from the third one: 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

while (<DATA>) {
    my $c = 0;
    s/([()])/$c++ > 1 ? "" : $1/ge;
    print
}

__DATA__
Jun 12 09 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com) 0.075 9387
Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@domai
+n.com) -1.889 25623

[download]

($q=q:Sq=~/;[c](.)(.)/;chr(-||-|5+lengthSq)`"S|oS2"`map{chr |+ord
}map{substrSq`S_+|`|}3E|-|`7**2-3:)=~y+S|`+$1,++print+eval$q,q,a,

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: How can I replace the pattern in the 6 th field?
by theravadamonk (Scribe) on Jun 18, 2018 at 16:06 UTC

    Hi, Thanks for your prompt reply. My ACTUAL data has more than that. Since data is sensitive I did NOT want to post everything. anyway, This is my DATA. sir, Pls forgive me. 

    __DATA__
Jun 12 09 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com) 0.075 9387, q
+ueued_as: C77837C0050 Subject goes here Sender(sender@sender.com) 
Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@domai
+n.com) -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(
+sender@sender.com)

    [download]

    Pls look at the last field. I don't want to replace last filed. Is there a way to capture ONLY 6 the field?

    waiting for your inputs.

[reply]
[d/l]
      OK, then use split and run the substitution on the seventh (the dash is a field, too) field only: 
      while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    my @F = split / /;
    $F[6] =~ s/[()]//g;
    say join ' ', @F;
}

      [download]
      ($q=q:Sq=~/;[c](.)(.)/;chr(-||-|5+lengthSq)`"S|oS2"`map{chr |+ord
}map{substrSq`S_+|`|}3E|-|`7**2-3:)=~y+S|`+$1,++print+eval$q,q,a,

      [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

        It works as I expected.

        Sir, Thanks a LOT for your effort. due to your help, I Could go ahead. I also appreciate everyone who helped me in this mail thread.

[reply]

      If whitespace actually is the field delimiter, another way to operate on only the seventh field of the entire record without first extracting all fields would be this (needs Perl version 5.14+): 

      c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"use 5.014;
 ;;
 my $rec =
   'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@d
+omain.com) -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sen
+der(sender@sender.com)';
 print qq{'$rec'};
 ;;
 $rec =~ s{ \A \s* (?: \S+ \s+){6} \K (\S+) }{ $1 =~ tr/()//dr }xmse;
 print qq{'$rec'};
"
'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@doma
+in.com) -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender
+(sender@sender.com)'
'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - recip1@domain.com,recip2@domain.
+com -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(sen
+der@sender.com)'

      [download]
      Whether this is faster/better than a split/join approach is left as an exercise for theravadamonk; I doubt it really is. (This approach requires Perl version 5.14+ due to use of the  /r modifier in the  tr/// operator and version 5.10+ for the  \K regex operator. These can be avoided in earlier versions of Perl fairly simply; let me know if a workaround is needed. (Update: See this reply for workarounds.))

      Give a man a fish:  <%-{-{-{-<

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      You could split on the dash and run the substitution operator on the second field.
[reply]
        ... split on the dash ...

        That seems to depend on the eighth or other subsequent field being a negative number. In the following, doesn't  Sender get its parens zapped? 

        c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"print 'perl version: ', $];
 ;;
 my $rec =
   'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@d
+omain.com) 1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Send
+er(sender@sender.com)';
 print qq{'$rec'};
 ;;
 my @F = split /-/, $rec;
 $F[1] =~ s/[()]//g;
 my $fixed = join '-', @F;
 print qq{'$fixed'};
"
perl version: 5.008009
'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@doma
+in.com) 1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(
+sender@sender.com)'
'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - recip1@domain.com,recip2@domain.
+com 1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sendersende
+r@sender.com'

        [download]
        But it has no dependence on any Perl version above 5.8 — nor indeed, I think, above 5.0!

        Give a man a fish:  <%-{-{-{-<

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

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