#!/usr/bin/env perl

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;

my $re = qr{ (?> ^TYPE      \s+ (?<value>VALUE\d+)
               | ^CAUSE     \s+ (?<cause>\w+)
               | ^[AE]FFECT \s+ (?<effect>\w+) ) }mx;

{
    local $/ = "ENDTYPE\n";

    while (<DATA>) {
        my %type = (value => '', cause => 'UNDEF', effect => 'UNDEF');
        @type{keys %+} = values %+ while /$re/g;
        say "$type{value}:$type{cause},$type{effect}";
    }
}

__DATA__
// HEADER TAG
// VERSION TAG

TYPE VALUE1 EQUALS MAIN
I am useless text
CAUSE FAIL
AFFECT ERROR
ENDTYPE

TYPE VALUE2 EQUALS MAIN
I am useful test
ENDTYPE

TYPE VALUE3 EQUALS MAIN
CAUSE DEGRADED
ENDTYPE

TYPE VALUE4 EQUALS MAIN
AFFECT WARNING
ENDTYPE

TYPE VALUE5 EQUALS MAIN
This comes after TYPE VALUE4
Strange effect before cause
EFFECT EFFECT_FIRST
CAUSE CAUSE_SECOND
ENDTYPE

##</code><code>##

$ pm_multiline_parse.pl
VALUE1:FAIL,ERROR
VALUE2:UNDEF,UNDEF
VALUE3:DEGRADED,UNDEF
VALUE4:UNDEF,WARNING
VALUE5:CAUSE_SECOND,EFFECT_FIRST

##</code><code>##

$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E '
    my @x = qw{VALUE10 VALUE2 VALUE1};
    say "*** Sorting Mistake ***";
    say for sort @x;
    say "*** Sorting Correctly ***";
    say for sort { substr($a, 5) <=> substr($b, 5) } @x;
'
*** Sorting Mistake ***
VALUE1
VALUE10
VALUE2
*** Sorting Correctly ***
VALUE1
VALUE2
VALUE10