my $string = '"foo"';
   $string =~ s/\"(.*?)\"?/$1/;

print $string;

[download]
But the .*? always gobbles up the trailing "
Actually it doesn't. Your non-greedy .*? matches as few characters as possible: Zero. Then, one or zero " follows. You can see it from the following snippet: 
my $string = '"foo"';
   $string =~ s/"(.*?)"?/_$1_/; # note that you don't have to escape "

print $string; # prints __foo"

[download]
For a solution to your problem, see the other posts.

In reply to Re: Matching quote characters? by betterworld
in thread Matching quote characters? by Anonymous Monk

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