for my $in ( <$fh> ) { my @p = map { ... } split /\|/ , $in; ... } #### for ( <$fh> ) { my @p = map { ... } split /\|/ , $_; ... } #### print join ', ' , map { s/^\s+// ; s/\s+$// ; $_ ; } split /\|/ , 'p | q|r|s | t' ; #### print join ', ' , split /\s*\|\s*/ , 'p | q|r|s | t' ; #### # input. Baw|Vao|111 Noa St||NewYork|NY|10012|2123456789|123456789 #### # code. my @fields = (map { s/^\s+//; s/\s+$//, $_ } split /\|/, $_);