use strict;
my $str = 'room_ass=01:macro_id=01: name=Left, pgm_audio=0, usb=0, list=(1*,3,5,7,),
room_ass=01:macro_id=02: name=Right, pgm_audio=1, usb=1, list=(2*,4,6,8,),
room_ass=01:macro_id=03: name=All, pgm_audio=1, list=(1,2*,3,4,5,6,7,8,),';
my $regex = qr/,(?=[^)(]*\))/mp;
my $subst = '.';
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