Whoa, whoa, whoa there. Why do you have the (arbitrary) requirement that everything has to be done in the regex? IMHO, long regexen are what lead to the stereotype of perl looking like line-noise. I would suggest using split, and then validating the elements that you need to validate in separate statements. If you'd like, you can gather up your validation and pack it in to a subroutine. Just try to think of the poor bastard who has to come behind you and maintain the code.
Also, minor nit, "infinite" ne "arbitrary". If there were an infinite number of fields, not only would you have run out of disk space by now, but you couldn't do anything with it, since you couldn't hold it in memory. ;) Arbitrary means "as much as you want", whereas infinite means "without end".
thor
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