Hello, I have this sub that seems way too long. It loops through a data file with pipe separated values and removes unwanted stuff and transforms values into standard format used elsewhere in application.

I have another one of these subroutines (in another module) that gets html as input and iterates HTML::TableExtract output in the foreach lop.

sub get_state {
    my ($self, $contents) = @_;

    $contents =~ s/\r//g;
    
    my %session = ();

    foreach (split /\n/, $contents) {

     if (/^ *\d+\+*\|/) {
            # Data record
        my @values = split(/\|/);
        foreach (@values) { s/^\ *//; };

        my %stats;
        @stats{@{$self->{fields}}} = @values;

        # do some clean up / bring to common values

        $stats{position} =~ s/\+//g;  # sometimes there is a "+"

        $stats{driver} =~ s/ *\(R\)$//; # I don't care if rookie

        $stats{best_speed} =~ s/\+//g;  # sometimes there is a "+" at 
+end

        if ($stats{status} eq '') { # not all the series track run, pi
+t, etc
            $stats{status} = 'Run'
        }

        $stats{status} =~ s/In Pit/Pit/ig;
        $stats{status} =~ s/Active/Run/;
        $stats{status} =~ s/Pace_Laps/Pace/;

        # convert time from MM:SS to seconds
        $stats{last_lap} = $self->time_to_dec($stats{last_lap});
        $stats{best_lap} = $self->time_to_dec($stats{best_lap});

        $stats{id} = $stats{car};

        #Logger->log(Dumper(%stats));

        push @{$session{positions}}, \%stats;

    } elsif (/^</) {
        # Header
        my @values = split(/\|/);

        my $flag;
            my $abbrv = $values[5];
        if ($abbrv eq 'G') { 
            $flag = 'Green'
            } elsif ($abbrv eq 'Y') {
                $flag = 'Yellow'
            } elsif ($abbrv eq 'R') {
                $flag = 'Red'
            } elsif ($abbrv eq 'C') {
                $flag = 'Checkered'
            } elsif ($abbrv eq 'U') {
                $flag = 'Unflagged'
            } else {
                $flag = "$abbrv";
            }
        if ($abbrv ne '') { $session{flag} = $flag };

        my $msg = $values[16];
            $msg =~ s/^>//;
        $msg =~ s/^.* : //;

        $session{control_message} = $msg unless $msg =~ /^\S+ flag/i;
        $session{event} = $values[0];
        $session{event} =~ s/\<\!(.*)/$1/;
        
        } else {
        #print "garbage: $_\n";
        }
    }

    Logger->log("series: |$session{series}| event: |$session{event}| f
+lag: |$session{flag}| time: |$session{time}|");

    return %session;
}
[download]

It seems like there should be a framework or something to do this kind of task. If not that, than some way to be more concise yet still clear in intent. It may be I am am trying to do a lot and this is what it takes.

Feel free to provide me name of some high level concept that I can research further.

Thanks, John

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