PerlMonger79:

I'm assuming you really mean simpler or easier to maintain rather than just shorter. I'd suggest something like this:

Roboticus@Waubli ~
$ cat t.pl
use strict;
use warnings;

# Valid records must have these fields
my @required = qw( name timestamp dl_retransmits_pct dl_throughout );

while (my $line = <DATA>) {
    my @missing = grep { $line !~ /$_/ } @required;
    if (@missing) {
        print "record $. missing fields: ", join(", ", @missing), ".\n
+";
    }
}

__DATA__
name timestamp dl_retransmits_pct dl_throughout foo
name dl_throughout timestamp dl_retransmits_pct
name timestamp dl_retransmits_pct
dl_throughout

Roboticus@Waubli ~
$ perl t.pl
record 3 missing fields: dl_throughout.
record 4 missing fields: name, timestamp, dl_retransmits_pct.
[download]

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.