You're setting a local value to $/ only inside the read loop. That is, the value gets set after the first record is read. At the end of the loop, it's set back to its default value ("\n"), and the next record is read with that value. Then inside the loop, you set the local value again. Try it this way:

sub slurpie {
    local $/ = '';   # paragraph mode
    while (<DATA>) {
        next unless /^\w\w.+(\w\w).+(\d+).+(\w\w)/sg;  #should only ma
+tch first paragraph
        print "$_\n";
    }
}
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I understand what you are saying but that didn't solve it for some reason


           local $/ = "";   # put into paragraph mode (separated by one or more blank lines
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

sub slurpie {
      local $/ = "";   # put into paragraph mode (separated by one or more blank lines
      while (<DATA>) {
           next unless /^\w\w.+(\w\w).+(\d+).+(\w\w)/sg;  #should only match first paragraph
           print "$_\n";
      }
}


slurpie();

__DATA__
hi
hi
234
hi

hoi
sdfsdfsdf23423
hi

hi
hi
1234

1

:!././././././././././perl_slurp.pl
hi
hi
234
hi


hoi
sdfsdfsdf23423
hi


hi
hi
1234

Your pattern (/^\w\w.+(\w\w).+(\d+).+(\w\w)/sg), which "should only match the first paragraph", actually matches them all (except the one that's only "1").

/^\w\w.+(\w\w).+(\d+).+(\w\w)/sg
  h  i\n h i  \n 234 \n h i

/^\w\w.+(\w\w).+      (\d+) .+(\w\w)/xsg
  h o i\ns d  fsdfsdf  23423\n h i

/^\w\w.+(\w\w).+(\d+).+(\w\w)/sg
  h i \n h i  \n 1   2  3 4
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Try just enumerating the paragraphs:

sub slurpie {
    local $/ = '';
    my $n = 1;
    while (<DATA>) {
        printf "*** paragraph %d ***\n", $n++;
        print;
    }
}
slurpie();
__END__
*** paragraph 1 ***
hi
hi
234
hi

*** paragraph 2 ***
hoi
sdfsdfsdf23423
hi

*** paragraph 3 ***
hi
hi
1234

*** paragraph 4 ***
1
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