If there is the slightest chance that your braces or whatever will be nested, then avoid regexen for that part of the problem. I've used all of the solutions mentioned so far and while they will do the job with varying degrees of ease, the one I've found easiest is Text::DelimMatch. It does the obvious and will handle nesting as well.

--hsm

"Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."