c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le "my @strings = ( 'SMS,SMS1,20190811', 'SMS,SMSh,20190811', 'SMS,SMSH,20190811', 'SMS,SMSx,20190811', 'SMS,SMSi,20190811', 'SMS,SMSX,20190811', 'SMS,SMSI,20190811', ); ;; for my $s (@strings) { my $ref_s = \$s; $$ref_s = 'SMSblk' if $$ref_s =~ /SMSi/i || $$ref_s =~ /SMSI/i || $$ref_s =~ /SMSh/i || $$ref_s =~ /SMSH/i || $$ref_s =~ /SMS1/ ; } ;; dd \@strings; " [ "SMSblk", "SMSblk", "SMSblk", "SMS,SMSx,20190811", "SMSblk", "SMS,SMSX,20190811", "SMSblk", ]