in reply to Regular Expression Problem

Only in the most simple and most regular cases, should one try to deal with CSV type files using a simple regex or split. Contrary to what it looks like at first sight, this file-format can be quite difficult to handle because of embedded field-separators, escaped field- or record separators, quoted strings, ...

Therefore your first reaction should always be to use a well tried and tested module such as Text::CSV to split your data records into fields. Not only will it save you from making obvious and not so obvious errors, once you are used to its interface, it will make for fast and easy programming.

CountZero

A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom