"Quantifier follows nothing in regex" replacing + and =

Question

I have written this line to replace + and = with space. But it returns an error stating

Quantifier follows nothing in regex

$element= ~ s/+/ /g;
$element= ~ s/=/ /g;

Is this correct? How do I combine both conditions in one?

Answer 1

+ has a special meaning in regexes: it's a quantifier meaning "1 or more". To use + literally, backslash it.

$element =~ s/\+/ /g;

But, if you want to replace both + and =, you can add them to a character class, where + loses its special meaning:

$element =~ s/[+=]/ /g;

Note that tr is faster.

$element =~ tr/+=/ /;