http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1214538


in reply to check if string is valid with special cases

If your strings could contain embedded commas then use Text::CSV_XS or similar to split it into an array, then all or any from List::Util to check that none or some are blank.

use Text::CSV_XS; use List::Util qw /any/; my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new; my @strings = ( 'a,b,c,d,e,f', 'a,b,,d,e,f', 'a,b,"c,and,some,commas",d,e,f', 'a,b,c,d,e', ); foreach my $string (@strings) { print "Checking $string\n"; my $status = $csv->parse ($string); my @array = $csv->fields; warn ($csv->error_input) if !$status; print "Did not get six entries in $string\n" if not @array == 6; print "one entry in $string is zero length\n" if any {!length $_} @array; print join ':', @array; print "\n\n"; }