c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"my @strings = (
   'ABC;123;;;;;HELLO;',
   'DEF;345;;BANANA;12DEF;44,55;4*12;;;;;;;;3;',
   );
 ;;
 for my $s (@strings) {
   printf qq{'$s' \n>};
   my @items = split m{;}, $s, -1;
   $_ = qq{\"$_\"} for @items[ 1 .. ( $#items - 1 ) ];
   print join(q{;}, @items), qq{< \n};
   }
"
'ABC;123;;;;;HELLO;'
>ABC;"123";"";"";"";"";"HELLO";<

'DEF;345;;BANANA;12DEF;44,55;4*12;;;;;;;;3;'
>DEF;"345";"";"BANANA";"12DEF";"44,55";"4*12";"";"";"";"";"";"";"";"3";<