first junk line then a blank line another junk line fieldname1,fieldname2 value1,value2 #### use strict; use warnings; use Text::CSV; my $csv = Text::CSV->new ({ sep_char => ",", eol => "\n", binary => 1, auto_diag => 2, }) || die ("$0: new CSV failed: " . Text::CSV->error_diag ()); my $filename = "/tmp/junk.csv"; # open file. open (my $fh, "<", $filename) || die "CSV open($filename) failed: $!"; my $header_line; while (<$fh>) { next unless /^fieldname/; # skip to header line $header_line = $_; } # parse that line and set our column names. my $status = $csv->parse ($header_line); if (! $status) { die "failed to parse header line from $filename: $header_line"; } my @columns = $csv->fields (); warn "got columns: @columns\n"; $csv->column_names (\@columns); # make a hash of each line, save in list. while (my $ref = $csv->getline_hr ($fh)) { warn "got ref: $ref\n"; } #my $ret = $csv->getline_hr_all ($fh); #warn "ret from _all: @$ret\n"; close ($fh) || die "CSV close($filename) failed: $!"; #### got columns: fieldname1 fieldname2