I may be wrong here, but it looks like you're only looking for one of these to match. If so, why not do this: 
   /^([\w ]+?)\s+:.(\d+)/
or /^([\w ]+?)\s+:.'(.*)'/
or /^([\w ]+?)\s+:.>(.*)</
or /^([\w ]+?)(.*?)/         # no value
or next;                     # I'm assuming this is in a loop somewher
+e

$$ref_entry{$1} = $2 || 'default value here';
print "TEST   $1 ==> $2\n";

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.02

cLive ;-)

In reply to Re: Faced with Null/blank/empty value by cLive ;-)
in thread Faced with Null/blank/empty value by bh_perl

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