Good Morning Perl Gurus, I have been trying to figure out all morning but can not understand why the 2nd set of if statements for $rows2 does not capture all data within the R brackets like I intended. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Below is what the file for OUTFILE file handler looks like:

Patient_ID || Med_Hist || Sur_Hist 
ZZZZZ00DFL ||   [R] [R]No pertinent past medical history  [R] [R] ||  
+ [R]UNREMARKABLE  [R] [R] 
ZZZZZ00DFL ||   [R] [R]No pertinent past medical history  [R] [R] ||  
+ [R]UNREMARKABLE  [R] [R] [R] 
ZZZZZ00C4H ||   ||   
ZZZZZ00C4H ||   [R] [R]High Blood Pressure  [R]Kidney stones  [R] [R]S
+OAPP-R Score : Moderate/High Risk:  19  [R] [R]Sleep Apnea Assessment
+(STOP-BANG): ( 2/4 );  7/2/2014  [R] [R]Orthotic brace tried for pain
+ relief: Yes: limited benefit  [R]TENS Unit tried for pain relief: Ye
+s: limited benefit  [R]Tried Topical Compound Cream?: Yes: limited be
+nefit  [R] [R]Acupuncture therapy tried for pain relief: Yes: limited
+ benefit  [R]Chiropractic therapy tried for pain relief: Yes: limited
+ benefit  [R] [R]Physical therapy tried for pain relief: Yes: limited
+ benefit  [R]Massage therapy tried for pain relief: Yes: limited bene
+fit  \[R\] \[R\] ||   [R] [R]Hysterectomy  [R]Spinal Fusion: L4-5, L5
+-S!; 2010  \[R\] \[R\]

[download]

Here is the code:

open (OUTFILE, "< C:\\Scripts\\TEST\\History21.txt") or die "Could not
+ open source file. $!";
 open (NEW_MED, "> C:\\Scripts\\TEST\\History_MED1.txt") or die "Could
+ not open source file. $!";
 open (NEW_SUR, "> C:\\Scripts\\TEST\\History_SUR1.txt") or die "Could
+ not open source file. $!";
  
 $count2 = 1;
 while ($line = <OUTFILE>) {
     @rows = split(/\|\|/, $line);
     if ($rows[1] =~ m/\[R\]/g) {
         if ((@var)= $rows[1] =~ m/\](.*?)\[/g) {
             foreach $var (@var) {
                 if ($var =~ /^\s$/g) {
                     #DO NOTHING SINCE WE ONLY WANT IF THERE IS ANYTHI
+NG INSIDE THE 2 R BRACKETS
                 }             
                 else {
                     print NEW_MED "$rows[0] || $var\n";
                 }
             }
             
           }
      }
    if ($rows[2] =~ m/\[R\]/g) {
         if ((@var2)= $rows[2] =~ m/\](.*?)\[/g) { # I AM ASSUMING IT 
+WILL RETURN SIMILAR TO THE PREVIOUS IF STATEMENT FOR ROW1 ABOVE
             foreach $var2 (@var2) {
                 if ($var =~ /^\s$/g) {
                     #DO NOTHING SINCE WE ONLY WANT IF THERE IS ANYTHI
+NG INSIDE THE 2 R BRACKETS
                 }             
                 else {
                     print NEW_SUR "$rows[0] || $var2\n";
                 }
             }
             
           }
      }              
$count2++;      
}
  
close(NEW_MED);
close(NEW_SUR);

[download]

The code brings back most of what I want, but it excluded the data from lines 2 and 3 of the file(line 1 is headers) which has "UNREMARKABLE" for "Sur_Hist" column, I need ALL data within the 2 brackets

[R]....[R]

captured unless its just a space like below then I need it excluded

[R].[R]

In reply to Extracting matches using boundries with regex by NewMonk2Perl

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