I figured out that in order to turn [some name] into [some_name] I need to use the following expression: s/\(\[[^ ]*\) /\1_/ i.e. create a backreference capture for anything that starts with a literal '[' that contains any number of non space characters, followed by a space, to be replaced with the non space characters followed by an underscore. What I don't know yet though is how to alter this expression so it works for ALL underscores within the braces e.g. [a few words] into [a_few_words]. I sense that I'm close, but am just missing a chunk of knowledge that will unlock the key to making this thing work an infinite number of times within the constraints of the first set of []s contained in a line (of SQL Server DDL in this case). Any suggestions gratefully received....