And my comments are this: run this code and ask questions :) 

use strict;
use warnings;

my( $area_code, $extension ) = ( 333, 321 );

while (<DATA>) {
    my ($number) = $_ =~ /\s([0-9()-]+)/;
    $number =~ s/\D//g;

    if (length( $number ) == 4) {
        $number = $area_code . $extension . $number;
    } elsif (length( $number ) == 7) {
        $number = $area_code . $number;
    } elsif (length( $number ) == 10) {
        # do nothing
    } else {
        warn "could not parse $number\n";
        next;
    }

    $number =~ s/(\d{3})(\d{3})(\d{4})/($1)-$2-$3/;
    $_ =~ s/([0-9()-]+)/$number/;
    print;
}

__DATA__
Black, Joe 0987
Smith, Sue 0534
Brown, Andy 587-0986
Smith, Pam (615)-895-1010

[download]
What this code essentially does is pull out things that look like phone numbers from each line. Then removes non-digits and checks the length of what is left. Based on that length, you can determine whether you need to add your default area code (333) and/or the default extension (321). Then you format the final number and substitute that back into your original line.

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

In reply to Re: total noob trying to format a phone list by jeffa
in thread trying to format a list by sonikd

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.