As George_Sherston mentioned above, the parentheses put a banana into $1. Here is just another way to circumvent that: 
$var = quotemeta('apple (banana) cherry');
$line = 'apple (banana) cherry kiwi lemon melon';
$line =~ s/$var//;

[download]
That would be equal to: 
$var = 'apple \\(banana\\) cherry';
$line = 'apple (banana) cherry kiwi lemon melon';
$line =~ s/$var//;

[download]
Thus perl wouldn't catch the banana, because the parentheses were escaped. 
-- 
arneb@emergency:~ > perl -MO=Deparse -e "(0); #Confusing perl..." 2> /dev/null
'???';
arneb@emergency:~ >

In reply to Re: newbie quoting question by NearO
in thread newbie quoting question by Anonymous Monk

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