So I have this rather large datafile. Unfortunately it somehow got corrupted. There are random newlines all over it. And what really should be the new line char is a +. What should be the record separator has turned into one of three different characters. Personally I don't believe the data is even correct, but the boss says to try and recover it anyway.

I understand you need to do what the boss says, but if the corruption is as random as it sounds, you can't reasonably expect to recover. The problem is a lack of pattern: if you try and sub out your "random" \n characters, for example, you might find out some were random insertions while others were random substitutions. And your record separator that's turned into one of three other characters: do they legitimately appear anywhere?

Unless ypu have a pattern for the corruption, trying to recover it is basically blind luck. Especially since attempting to recover it via Perl is certainly going to rely on you applying patterns...

And the truly problematic case is when you get your data to what looks to be correct: how can you tell for sure?

I'm not trying to dump on your efforts, but I've done a lot of this sort of thing, and at some point the only reasonable course of action is to restore from backup.

Now if you have been able to determine a pattern for the corruption, then you stand a very good chance of recovery. I'm just more than a little terrified by your description.