No, they can occur more then onece. Kalman Noel wrote: > ilhamik: > > hi, > > I want to downcase a string but without specific parts. > > for example: > > msg = "THIS is a Text and (NO Change HERE) HELP" > > If the parentheses occur only once: > > if msg =~ /\(.*?\)/ > $~.pre_match.downcase + $~[0] + $~.post_match.downcase > end > > Kalman