our $re_terminate = qr[ \s* (?: : | , | $ ) ]x; our $re_content = qr[ \s* \( ( [\[\{] ) (.+) [\]\}]\) $re_terminate ]x; our $re_nested = qr[ \( .+ \) ]x; our $re_serial = qr[ ( \( .+? \) ) $re_terminate ]x; our $re_qq = qr' " ( .+? ) (?!<\\)" 'x; our $re_csv = qr[ \G \s* (?: $re_qq | ( $re_nested ) | ( [^\s:,]+? ) ) $re_terminate ]x; sub build_structure{ warn( "Data didn't match spec.", $_[0] ) , return undef unless $_[0] =~ m[$re_content]; my ($reftype, $content, $chunk, @bits) = ($1, $2); my $p = pos($content); while( $content =~ m[$re_csv]gc) { $chunk = $1||$3||$2||'0'; if ($chunk =~ m[^ \( [^\(]+? \) ]x) { pos($content) = $p; $content =~ m[$re_serial]gc; $p = pos($content); $chunk = $1; } push @bits, $chunk =~ m[^\(] ? build_structure( $chunk ) : $chunk; } return $reftype eq '[' ? {@bits} : \@bits; }