Response: I'd go the Text::CSV route, but this might help get you started 
use strict;

   sub main{
      my $text   = qq{a,b,"hey, you","str1, str2, str3",end};
      print "Input: $text\n\n";

      # Split the delimiters
      my @values = split( /(?:\,|(\".*?\"))/ , $text);
      
      # Remove the created blanks
      @values    = grep{$_ ne ''} @values;
      
      # Output
      foreach (0..$#values){
          print "$_: $values[$_] \n";
      }
   }
   
   main();

[download]
Output: 
Input: a,b,"hey, you","str1, str2, str3",end

0: a
1: b
2: "hey, you"
3: "str1, str2, str3"
4: end

[download]


Thoughts: I haven't really thought why the blanks are being created - if you take away the grep, you'll see what I'm talking about. I still advise using Text::CSV because using this grep method will remove wanted blanks. Therefore, the above code has structural integrity problems.

Example: a,b,,d,e
You probably really want that space holder there if you're going to be inserting this into a database. The grep would remove it because it has a blank string value ("").

Demize

In reply to Re: Splitting a line on just commas by deMize
in thread Splitting a line on just commas by gibsonca

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