use strict;
my $str = '172.18.0.255
185.25.14.263
172.15.12.0
172.18.255.255
';
my $regex = qr/^172\.18\.(([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.)([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-9])$/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