C:\Steve\Dev\PerlMonks\P-2013-10-27@0838-Log-Parse>type test1.log GOOD Acme Toy Company 2010-01-01 2011-12-31 BAD XYZZY 1972-01-01 1972-06-18 UGLY Enron 2001-10-01 2011-09-11 C:\Steve\Dev\PerlMonks\P-2013-10-27@0838-Log-Parse>parselog.pl test1.log ##

##

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

# ---------------------------------------------------------------
# Parse log with following format:
# Status  Company Name Start Date End Date
#
# Assumptions:  Status contains no whitespace
#               Dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format
#               Company names have nothing that looks like a date
# ---------------------------------------------------------------

foreach my $inpfnm (@ARGV)
{
	if (!open INPFIL, '<', $inpfnm)
	{
		print "ERROR:  Cannot open input file '$inpfnm'\n";
	}
	else
	{
		print "\n";
		print "\n";
		print "\n";
		print "  \n";
		print "    \n";
		print "    \n";
		print "    \n";
		print "    \n";
		print "  \n";
		while (my $inpbuf = )
		{
			chomp $inpbuf;
			if ($inpbuf =~ /^(\w+)\s+(.+)\s+(\d{4}\-\d{2}\-\d{2})\s+(\d{4}\-\d{2}\-\d{2})\s*$/)
			{
				my $inpsts = $1;
				my $inpnam = $2;
				my $stadat = $3;
				my $enddat = $4;
				print "  \n";
				print "    \n";
				print "    \n";
				print "    \n";
				print "    \n";
				print "  \n";
			}
		}
		close INPFIL;
		print "Status Company Name Start Date End Date
$inpsts $inpnam $stadat $enddat\n";
		print "\n";
		print "\n";
	}
}

exit;

__END__