I am trying to use Perl to extract fields in a csv file I exported from Excel...

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
our $list;
our @clients;
our $filedef1=$ARGV[0]; #name of client CSV file
&read_clients ();
# define regex components 
my $accode = qr(^"(.*)",.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*)x;
my $name = qr(^.*,"(.*)",.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*,.*)x; 
# do regex matches
print "Extractions:\n";
my @extractions = $list =~ m{(?: $name)}mxgc; 
print "$extractions[$_], " for 0.. $#extractions;
print "End of Program!\n";
##Beginning of subroutine for reading the document source file.
sub read_clients   
{ 
open FILEDEF1, "< $filedef1" or die "error reading $filedef1-$!";
while (<>)
    {
    push (@clients, <FILEDEF1>);
    }
close FILEDEF1;
$list = join(' ',@clients);
 print $list;
} ##End of block for reading the document source file.
[download]

This code works like I want it to. When I substitute $accode for $name in the line my @extractions = $list =~ m{(?: $name)}mxgc; It only extracts the first record/line match for $accode, while I get every record/line match if I do a separate run and match for $name instead. In other words, I am not getting global, multiline matching on $accode while I am on $name. Any idea why? I want every record match for $accode.

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.