use strict; use Text::CSV;
use Data::Dumper; 
my @lines=<DATA>;
my $csv = Text::CSV->new ({sep_char  => ',' , quote_char => "'", allow_whitespace => 1});

my @AoA;

for (@lines) { if    (/^\((.+?)\).?/){my $con=$1; 
  if ($csv->parse($con)) {
 
      my @fields = $csv->fields();   push @AoA,[@fields];
 
  } else {     warn "Line could not be parsed: $_\n";  }
}
}

print Dumper \@AoA;


__DATA__
(101, '1997-02-25', 'S1', 31.00, NULL, 0.00, 'this becomes two fields, so no go', 5.11),
(102, '1998-03-26', 'S1', 31.00, NULL, 0.00, 'this will remain one field', 6.11),


##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = [
          [
            '101',
            '1997-02-25',
            'S1',
            '31.00',
            'NULL',
            '0.00',
            'this becomes two fields, so no go',
            '5.11'
          ],
          [
            '102',
            '1998-03-26',
            'S1',
            '31.00',
            'NULL',
            '0.00',
            'this will remain one field',
            '6.11'
          ]
        ];