Standard practice is to put your key/values into a hash and loop through your text once.

my %hash = (
    vars => 'vars',
    this => 'this',
    doink => 'doink',
    dink => 'dink',  
);

while(<DATA>) {
    s/\[([^]]+)\]/$hash{$1}/g;
    print;                    
}
 
__END__
<h1>Some beginning HTML up here</h1>

<update>
interpolate [vars] when they
are<p> between brackets like [this].
<p> <a href="[doink]">[dink]</a>
</update>

<small>The ending HTML down here</small>
[download]

If you want, you can use HTML::Parser or something so it only looks at whatever's between the <update> tags (or, if as gryphon surmised, you want to run through <update> many times.)

s/\[([^]]+)\]/<TMPL_VAR NAME=$1>/g;
[download]

my $t=HTML::Template->new(filename=>'file.html');
$t->param(var=>'AgentM\'s Print-o-Matic');
$CGIquery->print $t->output;
[download]

Here's another tip: If you encapsulated your parser (the HTML::Template clone) in the first place in a package, you should easily be able to use your existing code to construct a wrapper class around HTML::Template so that you don't have to change ANY code (just throw in a use HTMLTemplateWrapper; at the start)!

AgentM Systems nor Nasca Enterprises nor Bone::Easy nor Macperl is responsible for the comments made by AgentM. Remember, you can build any logical system with NOR.

Greetings. I'm assuming that the variables you want to place in the "update" sections are stored in arrays, and that all arrays are the same length...

# @vars, @this, @doing, @dink are predefined.
print "<h1>Some beginning HTML up here</h1>\n\n";

for ($x=0; $x<$#vars; $x++) {
   print "interpolate $vars[$x] when they are<p>\n";
   print "between brackets like $this[$x].<p>\n";
   print "<a href="$doink[$x]">$dink[$x]</a>\n";
}

print "<small>The ending HTML down here</small>\n";
[download]

Is this what you're looking for? This will change significantly if you want to hold your data in something other than these arrays like a hash or something (which would be recommended). Anyway, let me know if this doesn't help; I'll expand my answer or add something. I do this sort of thing all the time with CGIs.

--Gryphon.

Personally I would think this method would be best the best because then it doesn't have to replace variables in a string by searching, but just printing them when called for. Of course I could be wrong and just amde an ass of myself.

I'm not saying I'm the best at Perl, but I'm saying that I am the best.

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my original question. I have an HTML template in an external file. Hard-coding it in like that would defeat the purpose of having a template. I want non Perlers to be able to edit the HTML without (gasp!) seeing any code.

When's the last time you used duct tape on a duct? --Larry Wall