I've created a monster! ;)

Actually, you can eventually quote them enough to get the same effect as \Q and \E. I personally like the /\Q$string\E/ construct and recommend it over the other methods I'm about to mention.

But you can also do any of these:

$attempt= "get_stuff\\(\\)";
$attempt= "\Qget_stuff()\E";
$attempt= quotemeta( "get_stuff()" );
$attempt= qr/get_stuff\(\)/;
$attempt= 'get_stuff\(\)';
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but I still find the original suggestion makes the most sense to me. In a regex (that means only the first half of s///), $x means interpret the contents of $x as a regex while \Q$x\E means interpret the contents of $x as a string.

Update: Thanks, indigo, I missed that!

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")