($reg_exp = $user_query) =~ s/(\W)/$1 eq '*' ? "\\S*" : "\\\$1"/ge;

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You have too many slashes in the second part of that ternary (results in invalid chars being replaced by a literal '\$1').

In reply to Re^2: RegEx for users who dont know RegEx by The Mad Hatter
in thread RegEx for users who dont know RegEx by dimar

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