use strict;
my $str = '<h1>Heading</h1>
<br>
<br />
<a href="#">hyperlink</a>
<p></p>
<p>paragraph1</p>
<p>paragraph2</p>';
my $regex = qr/(\s*<[^>]+>\s*)+/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