Question

I would like to convert a string so that all numeric subsequences are enclosed in a {…} pair.

For instance:

input_string = "APPL[E]5XXXX"

output_string = "APPL[E]{5}XXXX"

Each string may contain one or more digits, for instance BASIC76XXXXX98ZZZZ and output should be BASIC{76}XXXXX{98}zzzz

Not sure if this possible to achieve. Any help will be very much appreciated.

Answer 1

This is for sure possible.

You want a regex that matches on digits, captures the digits, then substitutes the match with a wrapped set of curly braces.

my $input = 'APPL[E]5XXXX';
$input =~ s/(\d+)/{$1}/g;

• The \d+ matches digits.
• The () captures and stores in $1.
• The s/// is a substitution regex.
• And finally, the /g at the end means ‘global’, aka, do this for all matches.