Given that parsing text is one of Perl's core competencies, that may be a question without a really-good, on-target answer...
      ...or, I may just be iggerant.

However, for what you've described (at least as I understand it), you may be well served by parts of the "Perl Cookbook" and "Mastering Regular Expressions" (both pub by O'Reilly).

And if the rust is really heavy (or "free" is really crucial) http://www.perl.org/books/library.html.

If free is really crucial I strongly suggest checking to see if your institution has any books available online via the library (or even if the local public library does), or if there's a subscription to http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/ available. I've found such resources very helpful in multiple areas.

Kaiti
Swiss Army Nerd

"Text parsing", to me, often suggests modules like Parse::RecDescent, which is very well documented. You may also wish to have a look at Data Munging with Perl by David Cross, and Pro Perl Parsing by Christopher M. Frenz. For refresher exercises and answers, you might try the course notes offered by Perl Training Australia. Many exercises may also be found here.

"Data Munging with Perl" is an excellent book, well worth reading.

Just a something something...