#!/usr/bin/env perl use 5.010; use strict; use warnings; local ($/, $") = ("", ','); my @fields = qw{user summary access group}; my $re = qr{ (?: ^user:\s(?\S+) | ^\s*summary\s"(?[^"]+) | ^\s*access-level\s(?\S+) | ^\s*group\s(?\S+) ) }mx; while () { my %data; @data{keys %+} = values %+ while m{$re}g; say "@{[ map { $_ // '' } @data{@fields} ]}"; } __DATA__ user: myus44 [up] ------------ admin-state enabled summary "Johnny Cash" access-level group-defined group mi-group [up] user: jar1543 [up] ------------ admin-state enabled summary "Lara Croft" access-level group-defined group jar-head [up] user: myprivilegeduser [up] ----------- admin-state enabled access-level privileged #### $ pm_1047505_regex.pl myus44,Johnny Cash,group-defined,mi-group jar1543,Lara Croft,group-defined,jar-head myprivilegeduser,,privileged,