G'day trummelbummel,

Welcome to the monastery.

It's much easier for us to help if you provide a short, representative example of your initial data and a clear indication of your expected output. A written description of the data is rarely, if ever, useful. The data should be shown in <code>...</code> tags. I realise this is your first post: please just keep this in mind for future reference.

I'm wondering if your question falls into the "XY Problem" category: you've focussed more on a specific solution rather than on the actual problem. Your problem seems to be that you have a text file and you need to extract some data from it. Your current solution involves manipulating the data with split(), reverse() and join(): you've said this is necessary — I'm not convinced that it is.

If you'd care to consider another solution, take a look at the following (then the Notes at the end).

#!/usr/bin/env perl -l

use strict;
use warnings;

my $sep = '-' x 60 . "\n";
my ($start, $end) = ('workset((', 'dIonly');

my $all_to_end_incl;
{
    local $/ = $end;
    $all_to_end_incl = <DATA>;
}
print $sep, "Up to and including first '$end':\n", $all_to_end_incl;

my $start_end_incl = substr $all_to_end_incl, index $all_to_end_incl, 
+$start;
print $sep, "From '$start' to '$end' inclusive:\n", $start_end_incl;

my $start_end_excl = substr $start_end_incl, length($start), -length($
+end);
print $sep, "From '$start' to '$end' exclusive:\n", $start_end_excl;

my $paren_group_re;

$paren_group_re = qr{
    \(
        (?:
            (?> [^()]+ )
            |
            (??{ $paren_group_re })
        )*
    \)
}x;
                
my $workset_re = qr{
    (
        workset\(\(
            (?:
                [^(]+
                (??{ $paren_group_re })
                [, ]*
            )*
        \)\)
    )
}x;

$start_end_excl =~ $workset_re;
print $sep, "Wanted extract:\n", $1;

__DATA__
... other data before 'workset' found ...
workset((
RiskCA(cA, 3) RiskCB(cB, 2)) c
    workset((RiskCA(cA, 3), RiskCB(cB, 2), totPaycA(cA, 7), totPaycB(c
+B, 6)))
*********** trial #682
ceq pAAr(rA, cA, P1) c pAAc(rA, cA, P2) c ineqAA(rA, cA, P3) = (pAAc(r
+A, cA,
...
rl dec c cognum(X2) c watch(X1) c worklist(L) c workset((S, maxtotIneq
+C(cB,
    X))) => watch(X1 + 1) c cognum(X2 + 1) c worklist(nil) c workset(e
+mpty) c
    playA c dIonly [label avoidMaxI] .
X2 --> 3
X1 --> 3
[download]

That code has output at each stage: partly for demo purposes and partly because I'm not entirely sure which parts you want. Only the last part, which I'm certain you wanted, is displayed; the full output is in the spoiler.

Wanted extract:
workset((RiskCA(cA, 3), RiskCB(cB, 2), totPaycA(cA, 7), totPaycB(cB, 6
+)))
[download]

Notes:

• The $paren_group_re regex may look a little daunting; however, it's almost a verbatim copy of the code example in "perlre: Extended Patterns", so you can find a discussion there.
• The data is read in blocks up to, and including, 'dIonly' with 'local $/ = $end;'. See "perlvar: Variables related to filehandles" for more details. I've only read the filehandle (DATA) once; you can use a while loop and handle each instance of "workset((...dIonly" separately. You haven't given enough information about the input file for me to know, but maybe dealing with multiple shorter strings would be useful.
• If your "workset((RiskCA(cA, 3), ..., totPaycB(cB, 6)))" data is split across multiple lines, the code I've posted will handle this without modification. If you want to get that back into one line and lose the additional whitespace, consider using y/// something like this: 'y/\n / /s' ("perlop: Quote-Like Operators" has more complete details).
• Everything else should be fairly straightforward, but do ask if there's something you don't understand.

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