use strict;
my $str = 'X1,O1,X2,O2,Z3,X4,O4,Z5,X6,O6 <- repeated groups broken apart
x1,x2,Z3,x4,Z5,x6
X1,X2,O1,O2,Z3,X4,O4,Z5,X6,O6 <- repeated groups kept together';
my $regex = qr/(x(\d)(,)?)(x(\d)(,)?)?/p;
my $subst = 'X$2,X$5$3O$2,O$5$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