c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "use 5.010; ;; print 'perl version: ', $]; ;; my $rec = 'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@domain.com) -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(sender@sender.com )'; print qq{'$rec'}; ;; $rec =~ s/(?:\S+\s+){6}\K(\S+)/(my $x=$1)=~tr,(),,d;$x/e; print qq{'$rec'}; " perl version: 5.010001 'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@domain.com) -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(sender@sender.com)' 'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - recip1@domain.com,recip2@domain.com -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(sender@sender.com)' #### c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "print 'perl version: ', $]; ;; my $rec = 'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@domain.com) -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(sender@sender.com)'; print qq{'$rec'}; ;; $rec =~ s/((?:\S+\s+){6})(\S+)/(my $x=$2)=~tr,(),,d;$1.$x/e; print qq{'$rec'}; " perl version: 5.008009 'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@domain.com) -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(sender@sender.com)' 'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - recip1@domain.com,recip2@domain.com -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(sender@sender.com)'