use strict; my $line = join ",", ( '"completely quoted"', 'not quoted', 'partially "quoted"', '"completely quoted with embedded, comma"', 'partially "quoted with embedded, comma"', 'quote \'and comma, inside " single\' quote', 'single quote "and comma, inside of \' double" quote', 'last' ); my $re = qr/((?:[^"',]|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')+)/; print(">$_<\n") for $line =~ /$re/g;