The only way I can think of is with using index() to find the position of the string to replace:

my $template = 'aaa <%xx%> bbb';
my $repl = substr $template, index($template, '<%xx%>'), length('<%xx%
+>'), '//div[@id="abc"]';
print $template; # aaa //div[@id="abc"] bbb

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In reply to Re^2: Elegant way to escape a string in a regex by Anonymous Monk
in thread Elegant way to escape a string in a regex by bliako

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