use strict;
my $str = '____.ToHashSet()
(something).ToHashSet()
(some (nested (object) i ) need).ToHashSet()
(some
(nested (object) with )
linebreaks).ToHashSet()';
my $regex = qr/((\([^()]*(?2)?[^()]*\))|\S+).ToHashSet\(\)/mp;
my $subst = 'new HashSet<placeholder>($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