I totally agree with cLive ;-). Suck it and see often works well. However why not allow some flexibility:

$,="~";
$data = join'', <DATA>;
@bits = split /\W+/, $data;
print @bits;

__DATA__
aa
bb
cc
dd,ee,ff,

gg    hh    ii

jj kk ll
mm  nn  oo
pp|qq|rr
^&$just#$@another#%%^perl@!^hacker!#
[download]

This will split your data on *any* non alphanumeric separators - newlines, spaces, commas, whatever.

cheers

tachyon

s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n.+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print