#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use Text::Balanced "extract_delimited"; my @queries = ( qq(QUERY = "SOME QUERY WITH "" (DOUBLE QUOTES)" YEEHA), qq(Johnson looked up and said "Pie is tasty!" People in Clarkstown liked ""Pie"".), qq("You sir are an ""A\$\@hole""!" The chipmunks were naturally shocked.), qq("""No Way!""" """Way!""") ); for (@queries) { my ($extracted, $remainder, $prefix) = extract_delimited( undef, # defaults to $_ '"', # Our chosen delimiter '[^"]*', # Allow for text before the delimiter '"'); # Escape delimiter when doubled # Strip the delimiter since Text::Balanced leaves it in $extracted =~ s/^\"(.*)\"$/$1/; print; print "\n\$prefix = '$prefix'\n"; print "\$extracted = '$extracted'\n"; print "\$remainder = '$remainder'\n\n"; }