An alternative would be to use Text::CSV_XS, but I bet that won't be too fast either:

#!/pro/bin/perl

use 5.20.2;
use warnings;

our $VERSION = "1.00";

use Text::CSV_XS qw( csv );

csv (in => *DATA, sep => "|", allow_whitespace => 1,
     quote_char => undef, escape_char => undef,
     on_in => sub { @{$_[1]} = grep m/\S/ => @{$_[1]} });

__END__
IFB Northpole||| Alaska||| 907-555-5555
Walmart||| Fairbanks||| Alaska
Chicken||| Anchorage||| Alaska||| 907-555-5555
Beef||| Somewhere|||||Over the Rainbow|||907-555-5555

[download]

-->

IFB Northpole|Alaska|907-555-5555
Walmart|Fairbanks|Alaska
Chicken|Anchorage|Alaska|907-555-5555
Beef|Somewhere|Over the Rainbow|907-555-5555

[download]

Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn

In reply to Re: how to remove empty pipe delimiters in a line which doesn't contain any data by Tux
in thread how to remove empty pipe delimiters in a line which doesn't contain any data by rpinnam

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