use strict;
my $str = 'Somebody once told me "apples" are good for you
=> Somebody once told me "bpples" are good for you
"Aardvarks" make good kebabs
=> "Abrdvbrks" make good kebabs
The boy said "aaah!" when his mom told him he was eating aardvark
=> The boy said "bbbh!" when his mom told him he was eating aardvark
';
my $regex = qr/(?s)(?:^([^"]*(?:"[^"a]*(?=")"[^"]*(?="))*"[^"a]*)|(?!^)\G)a([^"a]*(?:(?=a.*?")|(?:"[^"]*$|"[^"]*(?=")(?:"[^"a]*(?=")"[^"]*(?="))*"[^"a]*)))/p;
my $subst = '$1b$2';
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