use strict;
my $str = '1y
123y4
x_12y
1y + x_12y + 123y4';
my $regex = qr/\b(\d+)([a-zA-Z]+\d*)\b/mp;
my $subst = '\\1*\\2';
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