Everyone is so much quicker than me. Oh well, here's my attempt for what it's worth, constructed to handle some (by no means all) HTML-legal variations in the text.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
$/ = '';
my %h;
while (<DATA>){
while ( s/((\d+) is good.+?)<(?:hr|HR)>//s ){
my $good = $1;
my $key = $2;
$good =~ s/\n?\s?<(?:BR|br).?.?>\n?/|/g;
my @pot = split /\|/, $good;
shift @pot;
$h{$key} = [@pot];
}
}
use Data::Dumper;
print Data::Dumper->Dump([\%h],[qw(*h)]);
__DATA__
<HR>
1 is good<BR>
useless data<BR>useless data<BR>
useless data
<BR>useless data<BR>
<hr>
2 is good<BR>
useless data<br>
useless data<BR>
useless data<br>
useless data<BR>
<hr>
3 is not good <BR>
useless data
<br />useless data<br />useless data<BR>
useless data<BR>
<HR>
4 is good<BR>
useless data<BR>useless data<BR>
useless data<br>useless data<BR>
<HR>
5 is not good <BR>
useless data<BR>
useless data<BR>
useless data<BR>
useless data<BR>
<HR>
By the way, you asked your question very well and complete with a good data example. It's appreciated.
(better Data::Dumper, thanks to sacked and tilly).
mkmcconn