Use the aliasing feature of for

for ($busi1, $busi2, $busi3) {
    s/-//g;
}
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I.e., the indidual items you loop over are being aliased to $_ in this case.

Or use an array instead of individual variables named $var1, $var2, ..., in which case the above would reduce to

for (@busi) {
    s/-//g;
}
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(But naturally, when you want to refer to a single value only in other places of your code, you'd then have to say, for example, $busi[2])

Hi BluGeni,

You should prefer the more idiomatic syntax in Eliya’s solution.

Just thought I’d mention that the code snippet you give, which you say “doesn’t seem to do the job,” should actually work fine, except that there’s a semicolon missing after $i=0; in the for loop:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my @busi = ( -1, -42, 7, -17 );

for (my $i = 0; $i < @busi; $i++)
{
    $busi[$i] =~ s/-//g;
    print "\$busi[$i] = $busi[$i]\n";
}

__END__
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Gives me:

$busi[0] = 1
$busi[1] = 42
$busi[2] = 7
$busi[3] = 17
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as required.

HTH,

The code given in the OP would work fine, provided that all the values are in an array (@busi). If they're independent scalars ($busi1, $busi2, etc., as in the example of what currently works), then it won't.

BluGeni, I strongly recommend putting your values into an array, then using

for (@busi) {
  $_ =~ s/-//g;
}
[download]

(or, more idiomatically, s/-//g for @busi;) instead of working with the variables as independent scalars - any time you have a series of variables named $foo1, $foo2,..., that's a pretty strong indication that what you really want is an array.

If you need help getting these values into an array, just show us the code that you're currently using to assign their values and we can show you how to modify it to use an array instead.

Hi, BluGeni.

I understand wanting to remove negative signs within a block of text. However, you show variables $busi1 .. $busi3 in substitution operations, and a variable $i taking values 0 .. 31 as a subscript used in a for loop, viz., $busi[$i]. Additionally, you mention "negatives that may be entered into a text box," perhaps suggesting a single text box within a Web form.

How many text boxes are you working with in your Web form: 1, 3, 32, other? How is/are the value(s) from the Web form accessed from within your script (e.g., by using CGI's params function)?