better try [^|] instead of .

PV1\|1\|O\|([^|]*?\|){3}\|

do you really need to capture field 2-5 ?

Honestly this code hurts my eyes and horrifies my senses for maintenance !

Better consider something like putting your first regex in a while loop and analyzing the captured string within that loop.

Friedl's book is a good read!

Cheers Rolf

( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)

In reply to Re: Selecting HL7 Transactions by LanX
in thread Selecting HL7 Transactions by BillDowns

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