There is something worrying about what you are saying... all incoming data is an "irregular format", if you get something that you don't expect then your program should be robust enough to handle that in a way that is appropriate to the application. If the incoming data suddenly changes to using Klingon time then things will break how ever you parse it.
-- Life is a tale told by an idiot -- full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. William Shakespeare, Macbeth