an excerpt of a big binary file ($data) looks like this:

```
\n1ax943021C               xxx\t2447\t5
\n1ax951605B               yyy\t10400\t6
\n1ax919275  G2L           zzz\t6845\t6

```

The first 25 characters contain an article number, filled with spaces. How can I convert all spaces between the article numbers and the next column into a \x09 ? Note the one or more spaces between different parts of the article number.

I tried a workaround, but that overwrites the article number with ".{25}xxx»"

```
$data =~ s/\n.{25}/\n.{25}xxx/g

```

Anyone able to help?

Thanks so much!

Gary