use strict;
my $str = ' static public void main(String[] args)';
my $regex = qr/(?:\b((?:public|protected|private)\s+)|((?:abstract|static)\s+)|(final\s+)|((?:volatile|synchronized)\s+)|((?:native|strictfp)\s+))+/mp;
my $subst = '$1$2$3$4$5';
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