use strict;
my $str = '// blah blah blah
const filename = ""; // it can be filename = \'\'; or filename = null; or filename = undefined; and so on
// blah blah blah';
my $regex = qr/^(\h*const\s+filename\s*=\s*).+/imp;
my $subst = '$1"NEW VALUE";';
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