#!/usr/bin/perl my $template_line = "bla bla bla [VAR01] bla bla [VAR02] bla [VAR999] [VAR99] bla blubb"; my @Vars = (0..99); $template_line =~ s/\[VAR(0[1-9]|[0-9]{2})\]/$Vars[$1-1]/eg; print $template_line;