I have a buffer of data which contains some strings I want to replace, but I want to put the replacing string before and after where the "bad" string was: Lets say the input data has the line 
<entry>22<?Pub _hardspace?>AWG or larger</entry>

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I want the output to be 
<entry><xx>22 AWG</xx> or larger</entry>

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(Yes, it is XML, and no , I am not using XML::Simple - I am fighting a different battle trying to install that!) So, I am using this relatively simple search and replace 
perl -pi -e 's/(\S+)<\?Pub \_hardspace\?\>(\S+)/<xx\>$1 $2<\/xx\>/gs' 
+test

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but it's coming out a little incorrect as 
 <xx><entry>22 AWG</xx> or larger</entry>

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ie the <xx> is starting too early - I'm matching a word with the "S" so maybe that is matching '<entry>22' rather than just 22 ?? Any ideas ? The character immediately preceeding could be anything, not just '>' ...

In reply to reg expression needs a tweek by Anonymous Monk

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