Considering your responses further down in the thread, where you say you're actually looking to store sequences of search strings and replacements, I think perhaps it might be better to look at existing data serialization formats instead of inventing your own. For example, JSON is very common nowadays, or YAML is sometimes a bit more human-readable. In addition, since your search strings appear to be fairly similar, it's worth investigating whether a regex or two can match your search strings with more flexibility instead of listing all the search strings.

use warnings;
use strict;
use JSON::PP;
use YAML::PP;

my $data = [
    { search=>"Reach Holly Smith for help by sending an email\nto holl
+ysmith\@nosuchdomain.com.", replacement=>"For more information, conta
+ct Holly Smith." },
    { search=>"For more information, contact Holly Smith at\nhollysmit
+h\@nosuchdomain.com.", replacement=>"For more information, contact Ho
+lly Smith." },
    { search=>"For more information, contact Holly Smith at (800) 555-
+1212 or\nvia email to hollysmith\@nosuchdomain.com", replacement=>"Fo
+r more information, contact Holly Smith." },
];

my $json = JSON::PP->new->pretty;
print $json->encode($data);

my $yaml = YAML::PP->new;
print $yaml->dump_string($data);

__END__

[
   {
      "search" : "Reach Holly Smith for help by sending an email\nto h
+ollysmith@nosuchdomain.com.",
      "replacement" : "For more information, contact Holly Smith."
   },
   {
      "replacement" : "For more information, contact Holly Smith.",
      "search" : "For more information, contact Holly Smith at\nhollys
+mith@nosuchdomain.com."
   },
   {
      "replacement" : "For more information, contact Holly Smith.",
      "search" : "For more information, contact Holly Smith at (800) 5
+55-1212 or\nvia email to hollysmith@nosuchdomain.com"
   }
]
---
- replacement: For more information, contact Holly Smith.
  search: |-
    Reach Holly Smith for help by sending an email
    to hollysmith@nosuchdomain.com.
- replacement: For more information, contact Holly Smith.
  search: |-
    For more information, contact Holly Smith at
    hollysmith@nosuchdomain.com.
- replacement: For more information, contact Holly Smith.
  search: |-
    For more information, contact Holly Smith at (800) 555-1212 or
    via email to hollysmith@nosuchdomain.com

[download]

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