my $setstr = 'altcategory=||';

if ($setstr =~ /(.*)||$/) {
  warn "hi: $1";
 $setstr = $1 ;
}

warn $setstr;



##</code><code>##

tsadm1@nyc-eads01:/export/home/brannont/bulkload/hacks/re $ perl setstr.pl
hi: altcategory=|| at setstr.pl line 4.
altcategory=|| at setstr.pl line 8.