my @array_1 = ("\$Id_run_query=1", "\$name_run_query=xyz", "db_query_run_query=select * from meter where metetid=\$Id and metername=\$name"); my $query; foreach(@array_1){ if ($_ =~ m/^db_query_run_query=(.*)/i){$query = $1;print "$1\n";} } foreach(@array_1){ if ($_ =~ m/^(\$\S+)=(.*)/i){ my $replace = $2; my $value = shift @{ [ split( /_/, $_ ) ] }; print "$value\n"; chomp($value); # print "$query\n"; $query =~ s/$value/$replace/i; } } print "===>$query\n";