This looks similar to what I see in sqlplus when data is wider than a format allows for. Is there any way to change the width of your formats when generating the data to make your parsing easier?

Then next question I would ask is if the gaps between columns are tabs or spaces. I would use split, a regular expression or substr to pull out the data for each column.

After I had the columnized data for each row, I would feed the data into a state machine. If @current_line[0] == @last_line[0], then you have a multi-line parsing situation (although, having nothing in the first column seems to indicate the same thing). Build up your data for each record, and print out the processed information once the record is complete.

If you show some code, you will be led along the path to enlightenment.

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.