Hello again everyone, Sorry about being so cryptic but I will put my question in code. I found a way to do what I want but it seems so cumbersome. I am sure a better way exist. well here is the code 
open(XFIL,"var.txt") || die $!;
        @main = <XFIL>;
        close(XFIL);


open(XFIL,">var.txt") || die $!;
  foreach $line (@main) {
    $line =~ s/\n/replace/g; 
    print XFIL  $line;    
}
close(XFIL);



open(XFIL,"var.txt") || die $!;
   @main = <XFIL>;
close(XFIL);



open(XFIL,">var.txt") || die $!;
  foreach $line (@main) {
  
   $line =~ s/the line to be replaced/this is the new line/;  
   $line =~ s/replace/\n/g;
   print XFIL  $line;    
}

close(XFIL);

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Hello , I have a quick question . Lets say the word data is in the $string 20 times. I want to only match the first instance of the word data . How would I do this ? 
if ($string =~ m/data/) { 
do whatever
}

[download]

In reply to search one instance by toniax

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