use Data::Dumper qw/Dumper/;



sub flat (&@) {
  my ($code, @list) = @_;
 
  local ( $;, $_ ) = join_reliably (@list);
 
  $code->();
 
  return split $;, $_
}

sub join_reliably {
  # just a stub

  # TODO search for reliable delimiter
  my $delim="\0";

  return $delim, join ($delim, @_);
}


#------------------------------
#  examples
#------------------------------

@list= ("a".."c","DBIC","A".."C","DANCER","a".."c");

@newlist = flat { s/.*$;DBIC$;(.*)$;DANCER$;.*/$1/ } @list;
print Dumper \@newlist;

# DIMTOWTDI

@newlist = flat { m/DBIC$;(.*)$;DANCER/; $_=$1 } @list;
print Dumper \@newlist;