note eyepopslikeamosquito <P> This one can be easily solved without using a regex. For example, here is a one-liner featuring the good ol' tr (aka y) operator, punctuated with just a few <C>&</C> characters (sorry couldn't resist): <CODE> perl -ne 'y&a&&&&y&e&&&&y&i&&&&y&o&&&&y&u&&&&print' words.txt </CODE> </P> 944253 944253