How do I enclose a group of characters in a "replace&qu

[arvimide]

I have created several "replace" macros to replace one or two characters with a unicode character from the extended Latin A group. This gives me a way to update texts from Classic Nisus and other sources using the non-normal Mac Latin3 format, among others.

Now I want to create a similar macro to replace html-coded letters, but those multiple character strings end with semi-colons, which are confused with semicolons in the grammar of the macro. How do I enclose the character group so it will be considered together for replacement by a binary character--parentheses, quotation marks, some kind of brackets, etc.?

I apologize in advance for this elementary question in so learned a group. I should learn perl straight through, but I haven't the patience or curiosity, since this is the only kind of macro I make. Thanks in advance for your indulgence.
---
++====+=====+=====+=====+=====+====+====+=====+=====+=====+=====+====++
||Arnold VICTOR, New York City, i. e., <arvimideQ@Wearthlink.net> ||
||Arnoldo VIKTORO, Nov-jorkurbo, t. e., <arvimideQ@Wearthlink.net> ||
||Remove capital letters from e-mail address for correct address/ ||
|| Forigu majusklajn literojn el e-po?ta adreso por ?usta adreso || ++====+=====+=====+=====+=====+====+====+=====+=====+=====+=====+====++

[cchapin]

I'm not a Perl expert, but according to Learning Perl you make a metacharacter literal by preceding it with a backslash. In your case I guess you would type \; instead of ;. Does this help?

--Craig

[arvimide]

I followed your suggestion, but it didn't cause the character group as a whole to be replaced, as occurs regularly with the one-and-two character groups I already have macros to replace. Perhaps there is some limit to the number of characters that can be grouped together for replacement.

---
++====+=====+=====+=====+=====+====+====+=====+=====+=====+=====+====++
||Arnold VICTOR, New York City, i. e., <arvimideQ@Wearthlink.net> ||
||Arnoldo VIKTORO, Nov-jorkurbo, t. e., <arvimideQ@Wearthlink.net> ||
||Remove capital letters from e-mail address for correct address/ ||
|| Forigu majusklajn literojn el e-po?ta adreso por ?usta adreso || ++====+=====+=====+=====+=====+====+====+=====+=====+=====+=====+====++

[dshan]

Arnold,

If you post the text of the macro you are having trouble with I'll try to help.

[arvimide]

I couldn't benefit directly from your suggestion, but I tried various quotation marks and brackets, finally discovering that parentheses were the answer.

Curiously, square brackets caused substitution of the desired binary character but repeated it four more times. I don't know why it picked five, although five was the last number in the string of digits in the enclosed series of characters. It even substituted the desired character in an unmatched substitution and here also inserted the digit five before the last repeated character.

Your suggestion led me to solve the problem.