use strict;
my $str = 'function(1, 2, 3)
function(1, 2, 3, 4)
function(1, function(1, 2), 3)
function(function(function(1, 2), 2), 2, 3, 4)
function(1, 2)
function(1, function(1, function(1, 2)))
function(1, function(function(1), 2))';
my $regex = qr/(\b[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*\(.*)(?:\b[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*)?(\b[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*\(.+?\))(.+)/mp;
my $subst = '\\1-\\3';
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