Hi, here's what I'm trying to do :

my @row = ('col1 : line1
col2 : line2',
'col2',
'col3 f1 col3 f2',
'col4',
'col5:line1
col5:line2',
'coll6 : line1,line1
coll6 : line2,line2
coll6 : line3,line3
coll6 : line4,line4'
);

my $f = "format = \n"
        . ('^*' . '|') x scalar(@row) . "~~\n"
        . '@row' . "\n"
        . ".\n";
eval($f);

write;
[download]

want desired result as :

col1:line1|col2|col3 f1 col3 f2|col4|col5:line1|col6: line1,line1
col2:line2||||col5:line2|col6:line2,line2
|||||col6:line3,line3
|||||col6:line4,line4
[download]

but running the code gives: Out of memory!

I am afraid you still have not read the man. It is necessary to understand how perlform works.

Your problem description is still rather dim. eg. what does 'col2' and 'f1' mean? Do you have 4 input lines having 6 columns each? We are unable to help you without clear problem description.

Hi, I'm having an array that has 6 cols/fields and a col/field can have either a single line or multiple lines. So, I can say a array looks like as :

('col1 : line1
col2 : line2',
'col2 : line1',
'col3 : line1',
'col4 : line1',
'col5:line1
col5:line2',
'coll6 : line1
coll6 : line2
coll6 : line3
coll6 : line4'
);
[download]

and I want to print the content of array as :

col1:line1|col2:line1|col3:line1|col4:line1|col5:line1|col6: line1
col2:line2||||col5:line2|col6:line2
|||||col6:line3
|||||col6:line4
[download]