My script involves opening a data file which has the following format: 

      q1:The cow jumped over the moon
      a1:a,b,c 
      s1:a,first,b,second,c,third

[download]

a1 is an array and s1 is a hash. I want to make things as easy as possible for those who will be creating the data file. Currently, for the script to work there can be no spaces between the commas and the next letter/word.

a1:a,e will work but a1:a, e will not because of the space between the comma and the e.

I am using the following format to make the array: my @array = split (/,/, $value); and my %hash = split (/,/, $value); to create the hash.

I have also tried using split like this: split(/,\s*/, $value) but that didn't work either.

Is there a good way to create both of these that will ignore any spaces in those records?

Say a user creates a record like this: 

a1: c, d
s1:a, first, b, second, c, third

[download]

where he/she inadvertantly puts one or more spaces between the comma and the next letter/word.

Thanks for the input.

Chris

In reply to clearing spaces from data input by chriso

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