#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Tie::File; my $file = 'filename.txt'; tie my @lines, 'Tie::File', $file or die $!; for my $line ( @lines ){ $line =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//; $line =~ s/\s+/ /g; $line =~ s/\(\s+\)/ /g; } untie @lines;