why not something like this: 

#!perl
use strict;

my $file = "foo.txt";
open (FH, "$file") || die ("unable to open the file!: $!");
my @ODB = <FH>;
close (FH);

my $line;
foreach $line (@ODB) {
my ($field1,$field2,$field3,$field4,$field5,$field6,$field7,$field8)=s
+plit('\|',$line);
my ($field_data,$comment)=split(";",$field8);
print "$field_data\n";
}

[download]
this is assuming a data file like: 
field1data|field2data|field3data|field4data|field5data|field6data|fiel
+d7data|field8data1; comment goes here!

[download]

HTH

- f o o g o d --- ruining the bell curve for everyone else ---

In reply to Re: Database question: pulling a particular field from a flat database by foogod
in thread Database question: pulling a particular field from a flat database by koacamper

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.