The question isn't so much about the "reason" I need to do this- more like a better WAY to do it.

After 30 years of programming Perl, and hours with Larry Wall and Damian and other gurus, my mindset is always CAN I DO THIS BETTER IN A REGEX?

Reluctantly , I sometimes have to capitulate and conclude NO, there is no "better regex approach". This MIGHT be that. The tite loop I showed was the shortest and clearest solution so far.

The real question is,

are there RHS "tricks" I can do with $1 $2 ... ? like a way to repeat $1 $n times? And a way to know what iteration each is?
It would seem "perlish" to have this capacity. Like:
s/(block)/$1{$n}/
where $1 is repeated $n times.. Im not sure about a way to know which iteration its on- maybe a reserved PerlVar?

In reply to Re^2: Can I get some help with a regex please by misterperl
in thread Can I get some help with a regex please by misterperl

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