I'm trying to come up with a contrived example.

Yeah! I spent a while trying to contrive something useful too. But not only did I not find anything that couldn't be done without it. I didn't find anything that I could say was even slightly more preferable done with it.

I really had forgotten it existed until it showed up the POD of IO::Socket::Multicast.

I have now used this structure, and I'm curious what your take on the approach is - either if it changes your opinion of the structure or if you have a more aesthetically pleasing alternative. I'm writing what is essentially a preprocessor for some code autotranslation, and so I have a volatile content string that I process through a series of if (){next} blocks. I then check for the error condition in the continue block, which prevents the possibility of infinite loops and cleans up error handling. I've just started the project, but expect the number of conditional clauses to grow significantly and this strikes me as the most extensible framework.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict; 
use warnings;

local $/; # slurp
my $content = <DATA>;
my $error;

# Preprocess
while (local ($_) = $content =~ /^#include\s(.*?)$/m) {

    if (/<math/) { # Math library
        $content =~ s/#include\s$_/import java.lang.Math;/;
        next;
    }
    
    if (/"stdafx.h"/) { # Autogen MS IDE header for project/system inc
+ludes
        $content =~ s/#include\s$_//;
        next;
    }
    
    if (/"/) { # A yet unconsidered header file
        (my $filename) = /"(.*)"/;
        open my $inc_handle, '<', $filename or warn "File open fail $f
+ilename: $!\n" and next;
        local $/; # slurp
        my $include = <$inc_handle>;
        $content =~ s/#include\s$_/$include/;
        next;
    }
    
} continue {
    if ($content =~ s/#include\s$_//) {
        warn "Unhandled include $_\n";
        $error++;
    }
}
die "$error errors encountered" if $error;
__DATA__
#include "stdafx.h"
#include <math.h>
#include "AlyLee.h"
#include "Common.h"
[download]

Note that while lexical variables are defined at the block level (as AnomalousMonk pointed out), the localization in the while conditional holds through the continue block.

That seems a very clumsy way of parsing to me. You're having to re-parse the same information multiple times. And the number of times will only grow as you add more cases.

A given/when or if/elsif/.../else cascade seems far more appropriate:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $content;
my $error;

while( <DATA> ) {
    unless( s[^#include (.+)$][] ) {
        chomp;
        warn "Non-include line '$_' untouched\n";
        $content .= $_ . "\n";
    }
    else{
        local $_ = $1;
        if( m[<math] ) {
            $content .= qq[import java.lang.Math;\n];
        }
        elsif( m["stdafx.h"] ) {
            $content .= qq[#include "stdafx"\n];
        }
        elsif( m["(.+)"] ) {
            open my $inc_handle, '<', $1
                or warn "$1: $^E\n" and ++$error and next;
            local $/; # slurp
            $content .= <$inc_handle> . "\n";
        }
        else {
            warn "Unhandled include $_\n";
            $error++;
        }
    }
}
print "\nContent:\n'$content'\n";
die "$error errors encountered\n" if $error;

__DATA__
#include "stdafx.h"
#include <math.h>
#include <stdio.h>
// A comment
#include "AlyLee.h"
#include "Common.h"
[download]

Produces:

C:\test>junk49
Unhandled include <stdio.h>
Non-include line '// A comment' untouched
AlyLee.h: The system cannot find the file specified
Common.h: The system cannot find the file specified

Content:
'#include "stdafx"
import java.lang.Math;
// A comment
'
3 errors encountered
[download]

---

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

"I'd rather go naked than blow up my ass"