sub parse_csv {

    my $text  = shift;      
    my $delim = shift;
    my $type  = undef;
    if ($delim && $delim =~ /comma|tab|pipe|fixed/i){
        ($type, $delim) = $delim =~ m/\A (.+) \s - \s (.+) \z/xms;
    }

    my @new  = ();
    if ($delim){
        while ($text =~ m{
        # the first part groups the phrase inside the quotes.
        # see explanation of this pattern in MRE
        "([^\"\\]*(?:\\.[^\"\\]*)*)"$delim?
           |  ([^$delim]+)$delim?
           | $delim
        }gx){
            if (defined $+){
                push(@new, $+)
            }
            else{
                push(@new, '')
            }
        }
        push(@new, '') if substr($text, -1,1) eq ($delim);
    }
    else{
        $new[0] = $text;
    }
    return @new;      # list of values that were comma-separated
}