Hi,

Please, before one shutdown the wonderful solution first given by aitap above on this issue,
Or wonder why "the" lovely map function doesn't do the "magic" as expected, Please, check the OP subroutine clean().

sub clean
{
    chomp($_[0]);
    $_[0] =~ s/^\s+//g;
    $_[0] =~ s/\s+$//g;
}

[download]
Why use chomp and then sepeartely, remove spaces? At the beginning and endling of each value?
I thought, \s+ also covers \n that chomp is suppose to remove?
I modified the OP clean subroutine and both map and grep gave the happy endling.
So, there is really no need for the extra $_ as perviously stated, if the modified subroutine is considered.
check below: 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $str = "item1  | item2| item3 
|item4|
 ";

my @cleaned1 = map { clean_modify($_) } split( /\|/, $str );
my @cleaned2 = grep { clean_modify($_) } split( /\|/, $str );

print join "\n", @cleaned1;
print join "\n", @cleaned2;

sub clean_modify {
    $_[0] =~ s/^\s+?|\s+?$//g;
    return $_[0];
}

sub clean {  ## don't use
    chomp( $_[0] );
    $_[0] =~ s/^\s+//g;
    $_[0] =~ s/\s+$//g;
}

[download]
OUTPUT 
item1
item2
item3
item4
item1
item2
item3
item4

[download]

If you tell me, I'll forget.
If you show me, I'll remember.
if you involve me, I'll understand.
--- Author unknown to me

In reply to Re: How to call a function on each item after a split? by 2teez
in thread How to call a function on each item after a split? by MrSnrub

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • 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! —
  • 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:
    & &amp;
    < &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.