open my $datfh, '<', 'C:\begperl\my scripts\cdata.txt' or die "Couldn't open file: $!\n"; while (<$datfh>) { print "**** Processing new input line\n"; my @fields = (map { s/^\s+//; s/\s+$//; # eliminate irrelevant spaces $_ } split /\|/, $_); for my $i (0 .. $#fields) { print " * '$fields[$i]'\n" unless $fields[$i] =~ /\r|\n/; } }