use strict;
my $str = '<a hello world href="/mycms/~/link.aspx?_id=D9423CEFED254610A5DC6B096A297E17&_z=z" class>
...
</a>
<img hello world src="/mycms/~/media/B1FB91AC357347BD84913D56B8791D03.ashx" alt="" width="690" height="202" />
';
my $regex = qr/(?i)(<a)(?=((?:[^>"']|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')*?\shref\s*=\s*(['"])\/mycms\/~\/link\.aspx\?_id=)([a-f0-9]{32})(&_z=z\3(?:"[\S\s]*?"|'[\S\s]*?'|[^>]*?)+>))\s+(?:"[\S\s]*?"|'[\S\s]*?'|[^>]*?)+>/p;
my $subst = '$1$2key{$4}$5';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/r;
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