split /\.*/ results in you only checking the first character of every line and the ones after periods

What you describe would happen with /\.+/  — as long as there are no periods, /\.*/ does split up individual characters just like //.   (Not saying that it should be used here, though...)

In reply to Re^2: Rogue Null (ordinate 0) characters in text files by almut
in thread Rogue Null (ordinate 0) characters in text files by paulnovl

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