To expand a bit on japhy's solution of using a hash: 

  # set this up once...
  my %cols = ( UN  => 0, RN  => 1, LOC => 2, ... );
  my $cols = do { my $tmp = join '|', keys %cols; qr/$tmp/ };

  # for each prompt to fill in:
  $prompt =~ s/-($cols)-/$user_info[ $cols{$1} ]/g;

[download]

This avoids the need for /e on the substitution as well as being very specific about what can be matched for template substitution.

Depending on what else you are doing with the @user_info array, you can easily convert it into a hash by using slice assignment: 

  # once
  my @col_info = ( UN  => 0, RN  => 1, LOC => 2, ... );
  my %cols = @col_info;
  my @cols = do { my $i = 0; grep { $i = 1-$i } @col_info };
  my $cols = do { my $tmp = join '|', @cols; qr/$tmp/ };

  # for each @user_info
  my %user_info; @user_info{@cols} = @user_info;
  # now you can look up your values by name instead of position:
  print "username: $user_info{UN}\n";

  # and our substitution turns into this:
  $prompt =~ s/-($cols)-/$user_info{$1}/g;

[download]

A suggestion: use full-length words instead of abbreviations like "UN" and "RN". It doesn't cost that much, and it saves your users (and yourself, six months from now!) having to look them up.

In reply to Re: Trying to allow user-customizable prompts in a chat program by tkil
in thread Trying to allow user-customizable prompts in a chat program by jpfarmer

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