here is the original:
<name>willy <desc>needs to take a nap <email>[EMAIL PROTECTED] here is the result that I want: <section> <name> willy </name> <desc> needs to take a nap </desc> <email> [EMAIL PROTECTED] </email> </section> if i have the whole thing in one variable $data, then $data =~ s/<(.+?)>(.*?)<(.+?)>/<$1>$2<\\$1><$3>/; might work (untested) for the the <name> part... but i need to be able to work with $3 as if it were $1 later on... perhaps i need a way to parse this several times over, but I'm not sure about the best way. this kind of data munging is really making my brain hurt. a couple of suggestions would make me a happy camper :) -- Willy http://www.hackswell.com/corenth -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://learn.perl.org/> <http://learn.perl.org/first-response>