in reply to Regexp with optional group containing backreference

#!/usr/bin/perl local $/=""; while (<DATA>) { my ( $name, $address, $url ) = split /<br \/>/, $_; print "Got $name $address $url\n"; } __DATA__ Name<br /> Address<br /> URL<br /><br /> Name2<br /> Address2<br /><br />
P.S. you can chomp if you want to...

Update:
(...you can leave your friends behind, 'cause your friends don't chomp and if they don't chomp, well they're no friends of mine) - sorry, I had to...

In case of no newlines as separator:
#!/usr/bin/perl local $/="<br /><br />"; while (<DATA>) { s/^\s*// && s/\s*$//; my ( $name, $address, $url ) = split /<br \/>/, $_; print "Got $name $address $url\n"; } __DATA__ Name<br /> Address<br /> URL<br /><br /> Name2<br /> Address2<br /><br />