in reply to Re^4: extracting strings from text files
in thread extracting strings from text files

My thought: that your error report just muddies the water. We can't even tell what the whole line is; much less, its context in your code -- of which you appear to have posted only a fragment and then deleted that.

It's really hard to offer much help when the helpee obstructs the process.

FWIW, I captured the following (less the shebang and node number) from the a mirror of the node you deleted ... but it doesn't compile, and the failure reported (as might be expected for a fragment) is for syntax errors other than the missing close_paren in line 69 (as displayed). 

#!/usr/bin/perl
use 5.014;
#980557

foreach (@infiles) {
    my $data;
    my $address = $_;
        unless(open (FILE,"<$_")){
            print STDERR "could not open $_: $!\n";
            next;}
         local $/;
         $data=<FILE>;
    
         my($html) = $data =~ /(<p>|<\/P>|&nbsp;|<html>)/im;
        
         if (defined($html)){  
        $data =~ s/<[^>]+>/\n/g;
      $data =~ s/&nbsp;//ig;
      $data =~ s/&lt;/</ig;
      $data =~ s/&gt;/>/ig;
      $data =~ s/&quot;/"/ig;
      $data =~ s/&amp;/&/ig;
          $data =~ s/&#\d+;/&/ig;
          $data =~ s/&&/ &/ig;
          $data =~ s/(\w+)&(\d+)/$1 $2/ig;
          }
        
         my($block, $lines, $auditor, $auditorcity, $auditorstate,
           $date_audited, $keyword1, $keyword2, $keyword3, $keyword4, 
+$block2,);
        
          
         ($keyword1) = $data =~ /(have(\s*|\n)audited [^a])/i;
         ($keyword2) = $data =~ /(our(\s+|\n)audits|consent to)/i;
         
        
         if (!defined($keyword1) && !defined($keyword2)) {($block) =""
+;}
         elsif (!defined($keyword1) && defined($keyword2)) {($block) =
+ $data =~  /($keyword2(?:[^\n]*\n){1,350})/im;}
         elsif(defined($keyword1))  {($block) = $data =~  /($keyword1(
+?:[^\n]*\n){1,350})/im;}
        
        
         ($keyword3)  = $block =~ /(((REPORT(\s+|\n)OF|CONSENT OF)|)\s
+*INDEPENDENT\s*(CERTIFIED|registered|registered CERTIFIED|)\s*PUBLIC\
+s*(ACCOUNTANTS|accounting(\s+|\n)firm)|REPORT OF INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTA
+NTS|REPORT OF INDEPENDENT AUDITORS|)/im;
        
          
         if (defined($keyword3)) {($lines) = substr ($block,1,index($b
+lock,$keyword3)-1);}
         elsif (!defined($keyword3)){($lines) = $block;}
          
          
         ($auditor) = $lines =~ /^\s*((?:[A-Z]\w+|\/\w+|&\s*\w+).+?\s*
+(LLP|L\.L\.P\.|LLC|LTD|P.A.|P\.C\.|PC)(\.|))$/m;
          
         if(defined ($auditor)){
         ($auditorcity)  = $lines =~ /$auditor\s*(?:(?:.+?\s*(?:LLP|L\
+.L\.P\.|LLC|LTD|P.A.|P\.C\.|PC)(?:\.|))|\(.+\)|)\s*(.+?)(?<![\d]),\s*
+(?:.+?)$/m;
         ($auditorstate) = $lines =~ /$auditor\s*(?:(?:.+?\s*(?:LLP|L\
+.L\.P\.|LLC|LTD|P.A.|P\.C\.|PC)(?:\.|)|\(.+\)|)\s*.+?(?<![\d]),\s*)(.
++?)$/m;
         ($date_audited) = $lines =~ /$auditorstate\s*(\w+\s*(\d\d|\d)
+,\s*\d{4})\s*($|except|\()/m;
         }
     
     
         if(!defined($auditorcity) && !defined($auditorstate)){
         ($auditorcity)   = $lines =~ /^\s*(\w+)(?<![\d]),\s*(?:\w+)(?
+<!LLP)$/m;
         ($auditorstate)  = $lines =~ /^\s*(?:\w+(?<![\d]),\s*)(\w+)(?
+<!LLP)$/m;
         ($date_audited)  = $lines =~ /^\s*(\w+\s*(\d\d|\d),\s*\d{4})\
+s*($|except|\()/m;
         }
        
         
         if(defined ($auditor) && !defined($auditorcity) && !defined($
+auditorstate)){
         ($auditorcity)  = $lines =~ /^\s*(\w+|\w+ \w+|\w+ \w+ \w+)(?:
+(?<![\d]),\s*(?:\w+|\w+ \w+|\w+ [^a] \w+))(?<![\d])$/m;
         ($auditorstate) = $lines =~ /^\s*(?:(?:\w+|\w+ \w+|\w+ \w+ \w
++)[^\d],\s*)(\w+|\w+ \w+|\w+ [^a] \w+)(?<![\d])$/m;}
       
          
         if (!defined($auditorcity) && !defined($auditorstate) && defi
+ned($date_audited)){
         ($auditorcity)  = $lines =~ /^\s*(\w+|\w+ \w+|\w+ \w+ \w+)(?:
+(?<![\d]),\s*(?:\w+|\w+ \w+|\w+ [^a] \w+))\s*$date_audited/m;
         ($auditorstate) = $lines =~ /^\s*(?:(?:\w+|\w+ \w+|\w+ \w+ \w
++)[^\d],\s*)(\w+|\w+ \w+|\w+ [^a] \w+)\s*$date_audited/m;
         }

       if (!defined($auditor) && defined($auditorcity)){
        ($auditor)      = $lines =~ /\n{2,}\s*(.+?)?\s+$auditorcity/m;
       }
       
      
       if (!defined($auditor) && defined($auditorcity)){
       ($auditor)      = $lines =~ /(?:\/s\/)\s*([^-]+?)\s*$auditorcit
+y/m;}
        
       if (!defined($auditor)){
       ($auditor)      = $lines =~ /(?:\/s\/)\s*([^-]+?)$/m;}
       
       
        if (!defined($auditor)){
         ($lines) = $data =~  /(consent to(?:[^\n]*\n){1,90})/im;
         ($auditor)       = $lines =~ /^\s*(.+?\s*(LLP|L\.L\.P\.|LLC|L
+TD|P.A.|P\.C\.|PC))$/m;
         if(defined ($auditor) && !defined($auditorcity) && !defined($
+auditorstate)){
       ($auditorcity)  = $lines =~ /$auditor\s*(.+?),\s*(?:.+?)$/m;
       ($auditorstate) = $lines =~ /$auditor\s*(?:.+?,\s*)(.+?)$/m;}
       
        }
       
        if (!defined($auditor)){
        ($auditor)     = $data =~ /((PWC|KPMG|ERNST & YOUNG|DELOITTE &
+ TOUCHE|PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS|Young LLP)\s*(LLP|))/i;}


       if(defined ($auditor) && !defined($auditorcity) && !defined($au
+ditorstate)){
       ($auditorcity)  = $lines =~ /$auditor\s*(.+?)(?<![\d]),\s*(?:.+
+?)$/m;
       ($auditorstate) = $lines =~ /$auditor\s*(?:.+?(?<![\d]),\s*)(.+
+?)$/m;}
       

       if(defined ($auditor) && !defined($auditorcity) && !defined($au
+ditorstate)){
       ($auditorcity)  = $lines =~ /$auditor\s*(?:\w+ (?:\d|\d\d)),\s*
+\d{2,4}\s*(.+?),(?:.+?)$/m;
       ($auditorstate) = $lines =~ /$auditor\s*(?:\w+ (?:\d|\d\d)),\s*
+\d{2,4}\s*(?:.+?),(.+?)$/m;}
       

       if(!defined($date_audited)){
       ($date_audited)  = $lines =~ /^\s*(\w+\s*(\d\d|\d),\s*\d{4})(,|
+$)/m;}
       
     
          print OUTFILE "$auditor\t";
          print OUTFILE "$auditorcity\t";
          print OUTFILE "$auditorstate\t";  
          print OUTFILE "$date_audited\n";

[download]

At this point, /me notes that *whatever* the full script looks like, it should never have compiled, and thus, never have processed nearly 7k files, with the regex error.

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom