In the code posted, the record separator ($/) is set to "". The paragraphs are separated by a blank line, i.e. a line containing no characters between its start and end. The code works as posted.

If you are using the same code and your result is a single block of text, then the paragraphs are not separated by empty lines, on your test setup.

Are you testing with the exact code you posted here? Or is the input data in a file, and you copied it into your code to post here? What happens if you copy and run the code from your OP, using copy/paste from the raw ("download") link?

Bottom line: the text you are processing must have its paragraphs separated by something other than a blank line.

Hi 1nickt,

Thanks for your reply! What I am really trying to do is to parse a batch of text files. In each file, I want to get each paragraph separately and do analysis within each paragraph. The code posted here is just an example.

When I copy and paste the text from the original text file and execute the code, I got the whole text back instead of each separately.

If the text I have does not separate paragraphs by blank lines, can I still get separately paragraphs?

Best Regards

Of course. But you'll need to use the right separator. And I was suggesting pasting and testing the code from your original post here, since several monks have reported that it works.

The way forward always starts with a minimal test.

... when I execute the perl codes on my computer, it returns the whole text back.

What Perl codes? Not because I doubted kcott but just to be able to say I did so, I copied out the code of the OP and only added the use statements kcott did, and I got the same output without warnings or errors. Are you saying that you can do the same and get a different output? If so, how does it differ? (It's not enough just to say "It's not what I want.")

Offhand, I cannot think of any environmental variable or OS peculiarity that would cause the originally posted code to differ in its behavior. We need more info about this.