thank you all for your responses....i've fashioned some code as follows into a separate script that runs as the first script in a pipeline, e.g. perl pre_script <bibfile | perl processing_script. this nicely separates the complex/multipath processing away from the multiline problem. I know i could have been more concise...but this problem was all about converting the data to get a job done; not to make pretty code. Thanks once again....+es all round.

while($line=<>) {
        chomp $line;
        if($line=~/^\*\*\* DOCUMENT BOUNDARY \*\*\*/) {
                check();
                print "$line\n";
                next;
        }
        if($line=~/^FORM=/) {
                check();
                print "$line\n";
                next;
        }
        if($line=~/\.\d\d\d\./) {
                check();
                $started_tag = 1;
        }
        $tag.=$line;
}

sub check() {
        if($started_tag) {
                print "$tag\n";
                undef $tag;
                $started_tag = 0;
        }
}
[download]

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.