use strict;
my $str = 'The European l a n g u a g es ar e members of the same fa m i l y
. Their sep a rate e xi ste nce is a myth . F or s c i e n c e , music,
sport , etc, Europe uses the s a m e v oca bula ry. The languages o n l y d
i f f e r i n t heir grammar, their pro nu n c iation and their most common
words. Everyone realizes why a new common language would be desirable: one could
refuse to pay expensive translators.';
my $regex = qr/ +/mp;
my $subst = '(@)';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html