I would go for readability instead. 

my $fixed = $ptext;
$fixed =~ s/^['"]//;
$fixed =~ s/['"]\z//;
$fixed = quotemeta($fixed);

[download]

That's probably useless since your list of meta characters differs from quotemeta's. If so, then you can use: 

my $fixed = $ptext;
$fixed =~ s/^['"]//;
$fixed =~ s/['"]\z//;
$fixed =~ s/([\\'"...])/\\$1/g;

[download]

In reply to Re^3: Regexp and metacharacters by ikegami
in thread Regexp and metacharacters by Largins

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