#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $foo = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz[]ö÷"; my $outstr = ""; foreach my $char(split("",$foo)) { if((my $num = unpack("U", $char)) < 125) { $outstr.= $char; } else { $outstr.="\&\#$num\;"; } } print $outstr;