"  ----  "

##</code><code>##

/  (....)  /

##</code><code>##

use strict;
use warnings;

my $gold_field = 'NAME';
my( @gold_aoa, @col, $pre,; $pat, $pad );

while (<DATA>)
{
	chomp;
	if ( /^[- ]+$/ )
	{
		# this line is a picture; turn it into a pattern
		$pad = ' ' x length($_); # overkill, I know.
		s/ -/ (-/g; s/^-/(-/g; s/- /-) /g; s/-$/-)/g; y/-/./;
		$pat = $_;  # start looking for data.

		# prev contains header
		my @hdr = $prev =~ /^$pat/;
		s/\s+$// for @hdr;
		@col = grep { $hdr[$_] eq $gold_field } 0 .. $#hdr;

		next;
	}

	if ( $pat )
	{
		$_ .= $pad;
		if ( my @dat = /^$pat/ )
		{
			@dat = @dat[@col];
			for my $i ( 0 .. $#dat )
			{
				$dat[$i] =~ s/\s+$//;
				length($dat[$i]) and
				push @{ $gold_aoa[$i] }, $dat[$i];
			}
		}
		else
		{
			# issue report
			local $, = ',';
			local $\ = "\n";
			print map @$_, @gold_aoa;
			@gold_aoa = ();

			# stop looking for data
			undef $pat;
		}
	}

	$prev = $_;
}

__DATA__

Here's the original sample data:

  CODE     NAME                    CODE     NAME                      
  -------- ----------------------- -------- -----------------------
  ABC      NAME ONE                RST      NAME EIGHT ...   
  DEF      NAME TWO THREE          WXY      NAME NINE - TEN
  GHIJK    NAME FOUR ...           ZAB      NAME ELEVEN
  LMN      NAME FIVE - SIX         CDE      NAME TWELVE
  OPQ      NAME SEVEN 

And here's another bunch of data.  It all still works!

  CODE NAME  AGE CODE NAME      AGE CODE NAME        AGE
  ---- ----- --- ---- --------- --- ---- ----------- ---
  ABC  ONE   1   RST  EIGHT     19  RS0  VEGA        39 
  DEF  TWO   2   WXY  NINE      23  WX0  SHELIAK     23 
  DEJ  THREE 3   WXZ  TEN       29  WY0  SULAFAT     29 
  GHI  FOUR  9   ZAB  ELEVEN    31  ZA0  AL ADFAR    31 
  LMN  FIVE  10  CDE  TWELVE    37  CD0  AL ATHFAR   37 
  LMS  SIX   13
  OPQ  SEVEN 15