use Text::CSV_XS; use feature 'say'; use warnings; my @tests = ( [q[1|str|foo\\|bar|goo|2323] => [qw(1 str foo|bar goo 2323)]], [q[foo\\\\|bar] => [qw(foo\\ bar)]], ); for my $t (@tests) { my $s = $t->[0]; my @e = @{$t->[1]}; my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new( { sep_char => '|', escape_char => '\\', } ) or die "" . Text::CSV_XS->error_diag(); $csv->parse($s); my @o = $csv->fields(); say "$s\n @e\n @o\n"; }