#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
my $txt = 'a,b,c,d,,,,,,';
my @fld = split(/,/,$txt);
print "\$txt = |$txt|\n";
print "\@fld = |@fld|\n";
for (0 .. $#fld) {print "\$fld\[", $_, "\] = |$fld[$_]|\n"};

__END__

Results:
--------

$txt = |a,b,c,d,,,,,,|
@fld = |a b c d|

$fld[0] = |a|
$fld[1] = |b|
$fld[2] = |c|
$fld[3] = |d|