Your best bet is tr e.g 
my $str = "ARKL---MNRD--SET";
print "$str [- count]: ", $str =~ tr/-//, $/;

__output__

ARKL---MNRD--SET [- count]: 5

[download]

HTH

_________
broquaint

In reply to Re: counting regex hits by broquaint
in thread counting regex hits by Becky

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