use warnings;
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my $file = '1|0||34|0|123';
print "file is $file\n";

my @m_file = map { ($_) ? $_  : 'default' } (split /\|/,$file); # try w/ defined($_) as well

print Dumper(@m_file);

##</code><code>##

Output I want

1
0
default
34
0
123