#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my %trans = ( '$name' => 'Frank', '$color' => 'Cherry Red', '$time' => sprintf ("%d:%02d:%02d", (localtime(time))[2,1,0]), '$date' => sprintf ("%04d-%02d-%02d", (localtime(time))[5] + 1900, (localtime(time))[4] + 1, (localtime(time))[3]), '$dstr' => '$time on $date', ); my ($trans_rx) = join ('|', sort { length($b) - length($a) } sort map { quotemeta ($_) } keys %trans); my ($string) = 'I\'m $name and I prefer $color objects, at least on $dstr'; while ($string =~ s!($trans_rx)!$trans{$1}!o) { } print "$string\n";