++AnomalousMonk explained the "why".

Here's something you can do to get the string in the format I think you want: the String::Interpolate module allows you to pass a string with character escapes and get back the string that I believe you desire.

C:\usr\local\share>perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use v5.10;
use String::Interpolate qw/interpolate/;

my @lines = <DATA>;

for my $line ( @lines ) {
   chomp $line;
   say "data line is *$line*";
   my $real = interpolate($line);
   say "real line is *$real*";
}

__DATA__
hello\ngoodbye
good\nevil
yes\nno

[download]
yields 
data line is *hello\ngoodbye*
real line is *hello
goodbye*
data line is *good\nevil*
real line is *good
evil*
data line is *yes\nno*
real line is *yes
no*

[download]

note: I've never used it before today; I found it via a quick search, and its description and above behavior seemed right.

Also, I don't have the Programming Perl to check page numbers, but "translation escapes" sound like escapes that are only available to the regex substitution engine and not to normal strings, so those will likely not be available even in String::Interpolate (unchecked).

In reply to Re: Can't get \n or other character/translation escapes to interpolate if originally read from a data file by pryrt
in thread Can't get \n or other character/translation escapes to interpolate if originally read from a data file by davebaker

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