use strict;
my $str = 'This is result level note five: This text is highlighted\\.sp 5\\This sentence should be displayed after 5 new lines.\\.ce\\This line should be centered.
This sentence should be on a new line.
This is result level note without a number: This text is highlighted\\.sp \\This sentence should be displayed after 1 new lines.\\.ce\\This line should be centered.
This sentence should be on a new line.
';
my $regex = qr/\\\.sp (\d+)?\\/mp;
my $subst = '\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n';
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