use strict;
my $str = '{
"webservers": {
"hosts": ["123.456.789", "123.987.963"],
"vars": {
"user": "Var Value"
}
},
"_meta:1:": {
"10.201.200.68": {
"host1": "value1",
"host3": "value3"
}
},
"apache": {
"hosts": ["123.456.789", "123.987.963"],
"vars": {
"gathering_facts": "no"
}
},
"_meta:2:": {
"10.201.200.54": {
"host1": "value1",
"ho3": "value3"
}
},
"ecs": {
"hosts": ["123.456.789", "123.987.963"],
"vars": {
"gathering_facts": "no"
}
},
"_meta:3:": {
"10.201.200.54": {
"host1": "value1",
"host3": "value3"
}
},
}';
my $regex = qr/_meta:\d+:/p;
my $subst = '_meta';
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