.. .. ..

t0	text		v?	text
t1	something	something		v? v-1

I need to replace v? with the text in the first column for that row ie (t0,t1...) and v-1 with the text in the column before (in this example it should be t0) To replace the v? in a row, do this: regsub {((.*?).*)v\?} $row {\1\2} updatedRow To replace the v-1 in a row, do this: regsub {(([^<>]*)[^<>]*)v-1} $row {\1\2} updatedRow