#!/usr/bin/perl -ln use strict; use warnings; sub expand; sub doit; print for expand $_; sub expand { local $_=shift; return doit $`, (split /:/, $1), $' if /\{([\w:]+)\}/; return doit $`, $1 .. $2 , $' if /\[(\w+):(\w+)\]/; $_; } sub doit { my ($pre,$post)=(shift,pop); map { my $pre=$pre . $_; map $pre . $_, expand $post } @_; } __END__ #### foo[01:100]bar-{fred:barney:wilma} #### foo01bar-fred foo02bar-fred ... foo100bar-fred foo01bar-barney ... foo100bar-wilma