Hi, I managed to do the get the desired result by below code : 


my @row = ('col1 : line1
col1 : line2',
'col2 : line1',
'col3 : line1',
'col4 : line1',
'col5:line1
col5:line2',
'coll6 : line1
coll6 : line2
coll6 : line3
coll6 : line4'
);

while ( join('',@row) ) {
        for(my $i=0;$i<=$#row;$i++) {
                my @a = split (/\n/,$row[$i]);
                my $s = shift(@a);
                print  ($s? $s . '|' : '|');
                $row[$i] = join("\n",@a);
        }
        print "\n";
}

[download]

it gives desired output as : 

col1 : line1|col2 : line1|col3 : line1|col4 : line1|col5:line1|coll6 :
+ line1|
col1 : line2||||col5:line2|coll6 : line2|
|||||coll6 : line3|
|||||coll6 : line4|

[download]

but condition in while loop looks kinda ugly, can be below code be further reduced ?

In reply to Re^8: perlform ^* variable field length by Anonymous Monk
in thread perlform ^* variable field length by Anonymous Monk

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