use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my $raStruct = [ [ qw{null 44 4} ], [ qw{6 24 6} ], ]; print Data::Dumper->Dump([$raStruct], [q{raStruct}]); my $test = q{xray}; map { $_->[0] =~ s/[^0-9]+/$test/ } @$raStruct; print Data::Dumper->Dump([$raStruct], [q{raStruct}]); #### $raStruct = [ [ 'null', '44', '4' ], [ '6', '24', '6' ] ]; $raStruct = [ [ 'xray', '44', '4' ], [ '6', '24', '6' ] ];