Insisting on using a Regular Expression to parse CSV data, and refusing to look at modules that have been well written for such tasks, is a bit like going to the mechanic and insisting on having your car's engine removed using sky hooks and telekinesis instead of engine lifts and elbow grease.

If the core module (that comes with Perl) for handling balanced text is unavailable to you because your professor requires that you not use it, at very least look under its hood at its source code so that you can understand how it works rather than trying to build your own internal combustion engine with coke-cans and superglue.

"Junkyard Wars" is on a different channel, this is Perl. ;)