Hello Chris, Mark and John, Thank you very much for your explanations! Yes, now I understand why $2 is changed by a new s///. I was thinking that $1, $2... apply only in regex search, but of course, regex substitution is also regex! Thank you again! Nobumi Iyanaga Tokyo, Japan ***** Want to unsubscribe from this list? ***** Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch