You need to add an /s modifier to the regex:

#! perl
use strict;
use warnings;

our $/ = '';

while (my $currentrecord = <DATA>)
{
    if ($currentrecord =~ m/^field2(.*)\nfield3/msi)
    {
        my $field2data = $1;
        print "Found \$field2data = $field2data\n";
    }
}

__DATA__
record 1:
field1: data 1 monday
field2: data 2 monday
field3: data 3 monday

record 2:
field1: data 1 tuesday
field2: data 2 tuesday
        tuesday details line 1
        tuesday details line 2
field3: data 3 tuesday

[download]

Output:

19:07 >perl 692_SoPW.pl
Found $field2data = : data 2 monday
Found $field2data = : data 2 tuesday
        tuesday details line 1
        tuesday details line 2

19:08 >

[download]

See perlre#Modifiers.

Hope that helps,

Athanasius <°(((>< contra mundum Iustus alius egestas vitae, eros Piratica,

In reply to Re: Regex to fix up records, some multiline fields, some not by Athanasius
in thread Regex to fix up records, some multiline fields, some not by butchie3980

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