Hi, I am trying to avoid ugly code. I have a working solution below and what I wish I could make my doce look like commented out. I am including a sample input file and the expected output. For the application I am writing there will be up to thousands if these types of flags and I am looking far a better way to parse the data. Any help is much appreciated. 
INPUT FILE =
# comment
# comment
ON Mon, Tues,
Fri,
Sat
# comment
other stuff

EXPECTED OUTPUT =
$on = Mon,Tues,Fri,Sat

CODE = 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
$infile = "test.txt";
$linecounter = 0;
$inon = 0;
$hold_on = "";
open(INFILE, $infile)  || die "Can't open $infile : $!\n";
MAIN:while(<INFILE>)

   $linecounter++;
   #printf("File Line %s = %s",$linecounter, $_);
   if ( /^\*/ || /^\#/ )  # Get rid of useless comments in file.
   {
       next MAIN;
   }
   chop;
   if ( /^on/i || $inon eq "1" )
   {
      undef($tmpon);
      undef(@junk);
      if ( $inon eq "0" )
      {
         @junk = split(' ', $_, 2);
         $tmpon = $junk[1];
         $tmpon =~ s/\s//g;
      }
      else
      {
         $tmpon = $_;
      }
      $len = length($tmpon) - 1;
      $last_char = substr($tmpon, $len, 1);
      #printf("Last Char = %s\n", $last_char);
      if ( $last_char eq "," )
      {
         $hold_on = "$hold_on$tmpon";
         $inon = 1;
         next MAIN;
      }
      else
      {
         $on = "$hold_on$tmpon";
         $inon = 0;
         $hold_on = "";
         next MAIN;
      }
   }
   #other code

printf("\$on = %s\n", $on);

WISHFUL CODE =
#$infile = "test.txt";
#$linecounter = 0;
#open(INFILE, $infile)  || die "Can't open $infile : $!\n";
#MAIN:while(<INFILE>)

#   $linecounter++;
#   printf("File Line %s = %s",$linecounter, $_);
#   if ( /^\*/ || /^\#/ )  # Get rid of useless comments in file.
#   {
#       next MAIN;
#   }
#   chop;
#   if ( /^on/i )
#   {
#      hold_on = "";
#      undef(@junk);
#      @junk = split(' ', $_, 2);
#      $hold_on = $junk[1];
#      $len = length($hold_on) - 1;
#      $last_char = substr($hold_on, $len, 1);
#      while ( $last_char eq "," )
#      {
#         $read_line = readln(<INFILE>);
#         $read_line =~ chop($read_line);
#         $hold_on = "$hold_on$read_line";
#         $len = length($hold_on) - 1;
#         $last_char = substr($hold_on, $len, 1);
#      }
#      $hold_on =~ s/\s//g;
#   }
#   #other code

#printf("\$on = %s\n", $on);

[download]

In reply to How do you read the next line in a file while in a loop? by GroundZero

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.