How to write regex for special characters without using back slashes??

sumathigokul has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi perl monks...

Please suggest me how to search and substitute for word with special characters without using back slashes..

my @nets = "in1_[0], in1_[1]";
[download]

since variable nets contains auto generated words, sometimes it may contain simple words without any special variables as follows

my @nets = "a_c, b_c, N_05";
[download]

lets say my file has in1_[0] word at many lines of codes and i wrote a perl script to search for in1_[0] i.e. $nets[0] word and replace it with in1_1 word i.e. $nets1...

while (<DATA>){
print "substitution is done" if (s/$nets[0]/$nets[1]/);
}
[download]

But, while executing the script i understood that special characters [] are present in variable nets, hence this substitution regex statement is not working... i read that i have to use back slashes for those characters... since nets file will be auto generated and sometimes only it may contain array values, how can i generalize this regex script accordingly...

-DATA-
in1_c[0]
in1_c[1]
in1_c[0]
in1_c[1]
a_c
in1_c[0]
b_c
in1_c[1]
in1_c[0]
in1_c[1]
[download]

Comment on How to write regex for special characters without using back slashes?? Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: How to write regex for special characters without using back slashes?? by 2teez (Vicar) on May 22, 2015 at 06:14 UTC
could quotemeta and `or \Q ... \E` be what you are looking for? I have not tested this on the OP given data. If you tell me, I'll forget. If you show me, I'll remember. if you involve me, I'll understand. --- Author unknown to me	[reply]
Re: How to write regex for special characters without using back slashes?? by Corion (Patriarch) on May 22, 2015 at 06:23 UTC
See perlre, especially `\Q` and `\E`.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: How to write regex for special characters without using back slashes?? by sumathigokul (Acolyte) on May 22, 2015 at 11:12 UTC
Hi all... I could achieve using \Q..\E...Thank you for sharing your knowledge...	[reply]
Re: How to write regex for special characters without using back slashes?? by soonix (Canon) on May 22, 2015 at 09:13 UTC
I don't quite understand your requirements. Possibly this is because English is not my native language, but I fear it is unclear even to the native speakers. My impression is, that you haven't yet thought it completely through yourself. I recommend the teddy bear approach, that is, try to explain to a random person, who should not be an expert, what it is you want to do and how you think it should be done. Update 2015-07-02: I just learnt that the "official" name of this technique is rubber duck debugging.	[reply]
Re: How to write regex for special characters without using back slashes?? by afoken (Chancellor) on May 22, 2015 at 07:25 UTC
Still abusing perlmonks as a code writing service? Please don't create new discussion threads for your problem, continue in the old ones and READ THE FINE ANSWERS! Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply]


Come for the quick hacks, stay for the epiphanies.
	PerlMonks