• you my a global @fields and another within your while loop.
• you split your CSV into the local-to-the-while @fields and then push something onto it (remember, this @fields is going to "go away" when the while finishes.
• you split the input line (already parsed with Text::CSV_XS) on /|/. | is special in a regexp anyway (but I don't know why you're doing this anyway)

I'm not sure what output you're expecting, is this program OK?

use Text::CSV_XS;
my @data;

input ();

sub input {
     my @attrs = qw(_status _gwname _ac_ID_field);
     my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new;
     while ( <DATA> ) {
        chomp;
        next if /^START/;
        $csv->parse($_);
        my @fields = $csv->fields;
        my %rec;
        @rec{@attrs} = @fields;
        push @data, \%rec;
    }
 }

foreach my $info (@data) {
    print "$info->{_status}\n";
}

__DATA__
adfadfasdfadsf,"adsf,asdf,adsf",adfasdf
adsfasdfasdfasdf,asdfasdfasdf,adsfasdf
adsfasdf,"adsf,adsf",adsfadsf
"asdfasdf,asdfasdf",adfasdf,asdfasdf
[download]

Output:

adfadfasdfadsf
adsfasdfasdfasdf
adsfasdf
asdfasdf,asdfasdf
[download]

If you're not already using Data::Dumper, you should be. It'll save you hours of frustration.

what is wrong with this script now? since I have to expand a @attrs_results I thought I could break it down below but program says _status is not recognzized all the way at the bottom when I try to extract it.

use strict;
use Text::CSV_XS;
my @data;
my $count = 0;

input ();

my @attrs_stop    = qw( _status
                        _gwname
                        _ac_ID_field);

my @attrs_attempt = qw( _status
                        _gwname
                        _ac_ID_field);
                  
sub input {
     my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new;
     while ( <DATA> ) {
        chomp;
        next if /^START/;
        $count++;
        $csv->parse($_);
        my @fields = $csv->fields;
        my %rec;
        my @attrs_results;
        if (/^STOP/) {
            @attrs_results = @attrs_stop; 
        } else {
            @attrs_results = @attrs_attempt;
        }
        @rec{@attrs_results} = @fields;
        push @data, \%rec;
    }
 }

foreach my $info (@data) {
    print "$info->{_status}\n";
}

print "There were $count calls\n";

__DATA__
adfadfasdfadsf,"adsf,asdf,adsf",adfasdf
adsfasdfasdfasdf,asdfasdfasdf,adsfasdf
adsfasdf,"adsf,adsf",adsfadsf
"asdfasdf,asdfasdf",adfasdf,asdfasdf
[download]

what is wrong with this script now?

You're calling your input() routine before you've set up the arrays @attrs_stop and @attrs_attempt that you're using in the routine...

Be careful with those global variables. @data worries me.

Why not let input() return an array ref?

my $data = input();

foreach my $info (@$data) {
   # do other stuff
}

# ------------------
sub input {
   my @data;
   # do stuff
   return \@data;
}
[download]


TGI says moo