This is my first post to SoPW, though I've had solid success using the CB.

I work with lots of text files and have had problems with the perl mods ie Text::CSV_XS etc... do not allow for embedded non-escaped text qualifiers or field seperators. So this is an attempt to retrieve the text qualifier and field seperator from a text file containing a header. 
$foo = qq{^snafu^|^foobar^\n};

$foo =~ m/\A(\W) # \A instead of ^ and match first non-word
          [^\1]+ # Match everything that isn't in \1
          \1(\W) # Match non-word following the 2nd \1
         /xms;
$text_qual = $1;
$field_sep = $2;

[download]
The regular expression is setting the second match to newline instead of pipe as it should.
It appears as if [^\1]+ is being interpreted as .+ for some reason? Obviously in this case I could use 
$foo =~ m/\A(\W) # \A instead of ^ and match first non-word
          \w+\1  # Match any word char until the next \1
          (\W)   # Match following non-word
         /xms;

[download]
But this only works for this limited case where the first field contains no symbols. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

MajingaZ
~Sic volere parcas~
So spin the Fates

In reply to Regular Expresssion TroubleShoot Help plz by MajingaZ

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