use strict;
my $str = 'class1->Signal = sample1_sample2.sample3_sample4[4:4];
class2->Signal = sample1.sample2.sample3_sample4_sample5[2];
class3->Signal = sample1+sample2_sample3.sample4.sample5sample7[7:3];
class4->Signal = sample1[1]+sample2_sample3.sample4.sample5sample7[7:3];';
my $regex = qr/^[^-]*\K->.*(?=\[[^][]*\];$)/mp;
my $subst = ' bit = ';
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