Furher to what 2teez said, simply use Text::CSV or one of its close relatives to parse the file. You can change the field/end of line separators simply by specifying them when you instantiate the object. e.g. in the case of Text::CSV: 
 $csv = Text::CSV->new ({
     quote_char          => '"',
     escape_char         => '"',
     sep_char            => ',',
     eol                 => $\,
     always_quote        => 0,
     quote_space         => 1,
     quote_null          => 1,
     binary              => 0,
     keep_meta_info      => 0,
     allow_loose_quotes  => 0,
     allow_loose_escapes => 0,
     allow_whitespace    => 0,
     blank_is_undef      => 0,
     empty_is_undef      => 0,
     verbatim            => 0,
     auto_diag           => 0,
     });

[download]
It also has support for encoding format etc.
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In reply to Re: Best Way To Parse Concordance DAT File Using Modern Perl? by space_monk
in thread Best Way To Parse Concordance DAT File Using Modern Perl? by Jim

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