I am trying to replace part of a text string using a regular expression.

When I put the search string directly in the regular expression, it works (the text string is modified).

When I put the search string in a variable, it does not work (the text string is not modified).
Note: I tried running the search string variable through the "qr" function, but that did not help.

I feel like I am missing something very basic here, but I just can't see it. TIA for any suggestions. 

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my ($text, $search);

$text = "\\x1\\x2\\x3\\x4";
print "\nUsing literal in regex: (success)\n";
print "Before: text = $text\n";
$text =~ s/x2\\.+\\x4/new/;
print " After: text = $text\n";


$text   = "\\x1\\x2\\x3\\x4";
$search = "x2\\.+\\x4";
print "\nUsing variable in regex: (failure)\n";
print "Before: text = $text\n";
$text =~ s/$search/new/;
print " After: text = $text\n";

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In reply to Regex Search String in a Variable by roho

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