use strict; use warnings; my $rcSep = sub { return q{*} x 20 . qq{\n} }; print $rcSep->(); my $singleQuoted = <<'EOD'; Line 1\ Line 2\ Line 3 EOD print $singleQuoted, $rcSep->(); my $doubleQuoted = <<"EOD"; Line 1\ Line 2\ Line 3 EOD print $doubleQuoted, $rcSep->(); ( my $transformed = <<'EOD' ) =~ s{\n+(?!\z)}{ }g; Line 1 Line 2 Line 3 EOD print $transformed, $rcSep->();