>perl -wMstrict -le "my @keys = qw(F29-2 F29-3 F29-4 F44-2 F53-2 F38-3 F12-2); my @vals = qw(F29B2 F29B3 F29B4 F44B2 F53B2 F38B3 F12B2); my %replace; @replace{@keys} = @vals; ;; my $rx_search = join q{ | }, map quotemeta, keys %replace; $rx_search = qr{ $rx_search }xms; print $rx_search; ;; my $s = 'F99-9 FF29-22 -F29-2- F29-2 F44-2 F12-2'; print qq{'$s'}; my $t = $s; $t =~ s{ ($rx_search) }{$replace{$1}}xmsg; print qq{'$t'}; ;; $t = $s; $t =~ s{ \b ($rx_search) \b }{$replace{$1}}xmsg; print qq{'$t'}; ;; $t = $s; $t =~ s{ (?