Here's an approach without using another module: 
my $bad  = { 
            '&' => '&',
            '|' => '&pipe;', # I don't know this one :-)
            ';' => ';', # This one either
           };
my $find =  join '', keys %{$bad};
$string  =~ s/([$find])/$bad->{$1}/g;
Enjoy 
--
Casey

In reply to Re: Safer (and cleaner) way to print user-supplied text. by cwest
in thread Safer (and cleaner) way to print user-supplied text. by Ovid

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