I've tried to simplify the file I want to parse. I hope I didn't over simplify it to the point I negated my dilemma: 
 RECORD 1
 ######                  Full Name 1a
                         Street Address 1a
                         City 1a                       ST1a   Zip_1a  
+              COUNTY 1a
0########                Full Name 1b
 abcABCabc    99/99/9999 Street Address 1b
                         City 1b                       ST1b   Zip_1b  
+              COUNTY 1b

 RECORD 2
 ############            Full Name 2a
 99/99/9999              Street Address 2a
                         City 2a                       ST2a   Zip_2a  
+              COUNTY 2a
0###                     Full Name 2b
 abcABCabc    99/99/9999 Street Address 2b
                         City 2b                       ST2b   Zip_2b  
+              COUNTY 2b

[download]

Notice a few things:
1) The # signs are actually digits
2) Certain lines may be prefixed by an erroneous '0' due to cobalt outputs
3) The two dates are different inputs (sometimes they appear sometimes they don't)
4) There are intricacies that make it not possible to do this with a fixed width grab.

So the following is some code that's pulling the data and storing it in variables. Note: this is in a loop and everything is set up correctly there are so many other lines I didn't include in the file above, and all the variables are storing correctly, it's just the second RegEx inside the if-statement that I'm slipping on.
(variable names and code modified for simplicity) 
if ($array[$line]  =~ /0?.*?(RECORD .*)/){
   $record  = trim($1); # works correctly

   $array[$line+1] =~ /(\d+)(.*)/;
   $id      = trim($1); # works correctly
   $name    = trim($2); # works correctly

   # still looking at the "a" lines, sometimes there's a date, sometim
+es no date
   $array[$line+2] =~ /.*?(\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{4})?(.*)/;
   $date    = trim($1); # when no date it's using the previous $1 that
+ goes into $id
   $address = trim($2); # when no date it's using the previous $2 that
+ goes into $name
   ... code continues ...

[download]
Please understand that this is my best attempt of simplifying my code and the program is a little more intense than I'm able to show you. While I welcome best practices, keep in mind that they may already be in place --- and know I appreciate your help (as always).

Update: I've deduced to the fact that the second '?' after the pattern that looks for the date is not working how I'd like it to.

In reply to Parsing Regex by deMize

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