use strict;
my $str = 'ISNULL(column, 0),column2 alias, column3,ISNULL(column, 0, alksd, dlsaksla),column2 alias, array_position(ARRAY[\'f\', \'p\', \'i\', \'a\']::varchar[], x_field),column3,ISNULL(column, 0),column2 alias, column3,ISNULL(column, 0),column2 alias, column3';
my $regex = qr/,(?![^(]*\))/mip;
my $subst = ' DESC,';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html