use strict;
use warnings;

open OUT, '>', 'delme1.txt';
print OUT <<STR;
The use of the Porter and
 Ale is more prevalent in England. In the
United States ½ Old and ½ New Ale is usually used when this drink is
called for, unless otherwise specified.
STR
close OUT;

open IN, '<', 'delme1.txt';
my $str = do {local $/; <IN>};
close IN;

$str =~ s/½/&frac12;/g;

print $str;

[download]

Prints:

The use of the Porter and
 Ale is more prevalent in England. In the
United States &frac12; Old and &frac12; New Ale is usually used when t
+his drink is
called for, unless otherwise specified.

[download]

as expected using ActiveState Perl v5.8.7 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread under Windows XP.

Maybe the file you are using is not the character format that you think it is?

DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

In reply to Re: How do I regex for characters like ¾, ¼ ? by GrandFather
in thread How do I regex for characters like ¾, ¼ ? by Plankton

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