Re: How to split line with varying number of tokens?

[jakeease]

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

<DATA>;     # Discard header

while (<DATA>)
{
    chomp;
    my ($reqid, $dest, $from, $datetime, $pages, $rcv) = split(/\s\s+/
+, $_);
    my ($date, $time) = split(/\s+/, $datetime);

    print join('|', ($reqid, $dest, $from, $date, $time, $pages, $rcv)
+), "\n";
}

__DATA__
REQID     DEST             FROM                     DATE   TIME    nPa
+ges  RCV
138454  mail_room     Marco's Pizza         12/26 21:52    1  rcv
138446  custsvc      973 618 0577          12/26 18:44    1  rcv
138445  county2       spam                  12/26 18:41    3  rcv
138444  custsvc      spam                  12/26 18:30    1  rcv
138439  county2       7182737253            12/26 17:54    2  rcv
138438  county2       Acme Products, Inc.   12/26 17:52    1  rcv

i. e., split on two+ spaces instead of one+; then fix date and time. Output:

138454|mail_room|Marco's Pizza|12/26|21:52|1|rcv
138446|custsvc|973 618 0577|12/26|18:44|1|rcv
138445|county2|spam|12/26|18:41|3|rcv
138444|custsvc|spam|12/26|18:30|1|rcv
138439|county2|7182737253|12/26|17:54|2|rcv
138438|county2|Acme Products, Inc.|12/26|17:52|1|rcv