in reply to How to ignore ampersand and pound signs?

Hmm... not sure if I understood your question, but hopefully this would help you out. 
#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;

my $a = qq{<IL.Check/>};
my $b = qq{<&#x221a;>};

print "Old word: $a\n";

$a =~ s/$a/$b/;
print "New word: $a\n";

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: How to ignore ampersand and pound signs?
by Melk (Initiate) on Nov 04, 2009 at 01:44 UTC

    Thank you!

    The double q (qq) worked!

    Sorry for the basic question, I'm just starting out with Perl. :-)

[reply]
      Nonsense. The single quote you originally posted works just as well. 
      my $s = q[<IL.Check/>];
my $r = q[<&#x221a;>];

print "Old word: $s\n";
$s =~ s/$s/$r/;
print "New word: $s\n";

      [download]

      There's no interpolation or escape sequences here. q vs qq is moot.

      The real problem is that you are using text as a regex pattern without first converting it to a regex pattern. ("#" is special under "x".) Use quotemeta or its alias \Q..\E: 

      my $s = q[<IL.Check/>];
my $r = q[<&#x221a;>];

print "Old word: $s\n";
$s =~ s/\Q$s\E/$r/;
print "New word: $s\n";

      [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
[reply]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom