#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $string = 'John is following jane';

# Specific 
$string =~ s/[jJ]ane/##Jane##/;

# To preserve j or J in replacement
# $string =~ s/([jJ]ane)/##$1##/;

# More generic
# $string =~ s/(John is following) (\w+)/$1 \u$2/;
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Thx L~r !

But the generic version would replace both 'jane' & 'Jane' with 'Jane'.

I'm looking for a way to search insensitive but the replace should keep the case of the word/text ...

Thx again !

Anonymous Monk,
I provided 3 examples because you were not exactly clear what your definition of "case insensitive" and "case sensitive" was in your post. The second example is closest to what you mean, but you might have also meant:

$string =~ s/(jane)/##$1##/i;
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This would allow any letters to be any case, but be preserved in the replacement.

Cheers - L~R

But let's say you want to replace 'Jane' (any case) with 'Mary' (same case). Here's one way of doing it:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my $pat  = "jane";
my $repl = "mary";

while (<DATA>) {
    s/($pat)/$1 ^ $pat ^ $repl/eig;
    print;
}

__DATA__
jane janE jaNe jaNE
jAne jAnE jANe jANE
Jane JanE JaNe JaNE
JAne JAnE JANe JANE



mary marY maRy maRY
mAry mArY mARy mARY
Mary MarY MaRy MaRY
MAry MArY MARy MARY
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Abigail

If you use the /i switch in combination with 's///', it will capture any case permutation of whatever it is you are replacing, and if you use that captured text, it will appear in the exact same case permutation as it was captured. This will work no matter what you are trying to capture.

while ( chomp( my $line = <DATA> ) ) {
  $line =~ s/(Fred)/"$1"/i;
  print "$^C
root@who1# perl
while ( my $line = <DATA> ) {
  $line =~ s/(Fred)/"$1"/i;
  print $line;
}
__DATA__
Hello, my name is FRED!
fREd went to the store.
Nobody was home, except for freD.
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Output:

Hello, my name is "FRED"!
"fREd" went to the store.
Nobody was home, except for "freD".

You mention in a later post that you are looking for something more generic that will work for anything, not just names. Perhaps this is what you are looking for?

my $tag = 'jane';
while ( <DATA> ) {
  s/($tag)/##$1##/i;  # you might also want a /g here as well.
  print;
}
__DATA__
- John is following jane
- John is following Jane
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Output:

- John is following ##jane##
- John is following ##Jane##

perl -le '$t="John is following jane"; $t=~s/(jane)/##$1##/i; print $t
+'
John is following ##jane##
$perl -le '$t="John is following Jane"; $t=~s/(jane)/##$1##/i; print $
+t'
John is following ##Jane##
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If you mean you want to capture some names and replace them having a capital letter first and lower thereafter, try something like s/(j\wn\w)/"###".ucfirst(lc($1))."###"/ie

Update: That turns out not to be the answer to the question the seeker was trying to ask. However, you can also do the above this way: s/($name)/###\u\L$1###/i

$a="John is following jane";
$a=~s/(jane)/ucfirst(lc($1));/iee;
print "$a\n";
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