use strict;
my $str = 'WHERE MATCH (COALESCE(f1, f2, f3)) AGAINST (?) > 0
WHERE MATCH (COALESCE(f1)) AGAINST (?) > 0';
my $regex = qr/MATCH\s*\(\K\s*COALESCE\s*\(\s*([^,)]+)(?:,[^)]*)?\)(?=\)\s*AGAINST)/mip;
my $subst = '$1';
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