This thread helped me with a problem I was having. Thanks!

Here is the command line test script that I wrote to test out some options. It allows you to see what response occurs in your system.

This was tested under Xubuntu linux with a Terminator terminal. For my system I found a DIFFERENCE in behavior between a loaded test file with pipe symbol used as the separator and the pipe symbol being used in a test data line entered from the command line.

You can also experiment with other potential separators from the command line, but you will have to edit the script and a sample data file to experiment with various separators loaded from a file on disk. A sample |(pipe) separated test file follows the script.

save program as split-test.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
# no warnings 'uninitialized';
use English;
use utf8;
binmode(STDOUT, ":utf8");

print "Using | separated data file loaded from disk;\n | IS escaped in
+ split\n";

open(IN,"< testdata.csv") || die "cannot open  testdata.csv";
my @data = <IN>;
chomp(@data);
foreach my $line(@data){
  foreach my $pwd (split(/\|/, "$line")) {
   print $pwd,"\n";
 };
};
print "hit any key to continue: ";
my $ans = <STDIN>;

print "Using | separated data file from disk;
 | NOT escaped in split\n";
foreach my $line(@data){
  foreach my $pwd (split(/|/, "$line")) {
   print $pwd,"\n";
 };
};
print "hit any key to continue: ";
$ans = <STDIN>;

print "following examples use | separated test string 
in script in \n different ways\n";

print"default separator | NOT  escaped
 in default test string\n";

foreach my $pwd (split(/\|/, "| *foo | *foo1 | *foo2")) {
 print $pwd,"\n";
};

print"default separator | IS escaped 
in default test string\n";

foreach my $pwd (split(/\|/, "\| *foo \| *foo1 \| *foo2")) {
 print $pwd,"\n";
};

print "this section is a loop that allows you to try different separat
+ors that you enter from command line\n";
print "you can experiment by using a character alone or proceeding the
+ character with an \ as an escape'\n
for example, using | and then using \ |/.\n";

while(-1){
print "start of loop enter NEW separator: ";
my $sep = <STDIN>;
chomp($sep);
print "separator IS escaped in split command:\n";

print "separator $sep is NOT escaped in split command:\n";

foreach my $pwd (split(/\\$sep/, "$sep *foo $sep *foo1 $sep *foo2")) {
 print $pwd,"\n";
};

print"\n\t ****\n\n";

print "test separator ($sep) on command line testline\n";
print "using $sep: paste testline here: ";

my $testline =<STDIN>;
chomp($testline); 

print "separator IS escaped in split command:\n";
my @testarray = split(/\\$sep/,$testline) ;

foreach my $item(@testarray){
  print "$item\n";
};

print "separator is NOT escaped in split command:\n";
@testarray = split(/"$sep"/,$testline) ;

foreach my $item(@testarray){
  print "$item\n";
};

}#endwhile
[download]

sample test file - save as "testdata.csv

| *foo | *foo1 | *foo2
| *foo4| *foo5 | *foo6
[download]

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