Note that doesn't work in the general case. For instance, suppose you want to replace first three sequences of whitespace with a single space. 
s/\s+/ / for 1 .. 3;

[download]
would replace the first sequence three times.

In reply to Re^2: how to search and replace the match with specific number of times in a string by JavaFan
in thread how to search and replace the match with specific number of times in a string by loki

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