use strict;
my $str = 'CARBON 1569
1.00% IRON 234
99% CARBON, 1% IRON 181
98.2% CARBON 1% ZINC 181
99% CARBON#1% IRON 141
ASD CARBON 2% IRON RANDOMWORD 23';
my $regex = qr/\b(CARBON\b|IRON\b|ZINC\b|\d+(?:\.\d+)?(?:%|\b))|\S/mp;
my $subst = '\\1';
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