I usualy suggest using a proper parser when working with XML/HTML. Several are available, see HTML::TokeParser Tutorial from the tutorials section of this site.

There are some parsing idiosyncrasies (like tags are all considered lowercase within the parser) but the HTML::TokeParser family is usually quite good for anything that is SGMLish.

Try this. It should be close to what you want already and pretty obvious how to adapt. See also: HTML::TokeParser::Simple. (Update: pulled YAML from sample code, it wasn't there for any reason.)

use warnings;
use strict;
use HTML::TokeParser::Simple;

my $p = HTML::TokeParser::Simple->new(\*DATA);

while ( my $token = $p->get_tag() )
{
    if ( $token->get_tag =~ /\Atr(;+\d+)?\z/ )
    {
        while ( $p->peek and $p->peek !~ /<(Tr\b|endtab)/ )
        {
            my $token = $p->get_token or next;
            print $token->as_is, " + ";
        }
        print "\n";
    }
}

__DATA__
<Tr><Tc>PA Group (N <26> 23)<Tc>COM Group (N <26> 24)<Tc>
<Tr>Gender<Tc><Tc><Tc><124><sup>2<reset> test <26> 0.216, <mdit>df<med
+> <26> 1, <mdit>P<med> <26> 0.642
<Tr><ems>Male (%)<Tc>14<ths>(60.9)<Tc>13<ths>(54.2)<Tc>
<Tr><ems>Female (%)<Tc>9<ths>(39.1)<Tc>11<ths>(45.8)<Tc>
<Tr>Ethnicity<Tc><Tc><Tc><124><sup>2<reset> test <26> 24.99, <mdit>df<
+med> <26> 4, <mdit>P<med> <178> 0.001
<Tr><ems>African American (%)<Tc>5<ths>(21.7)<Tc>2<ths>(8.3)<Tc>
<Tr><ems>European American (%)<Tc>5<ths>(21.7)<Tc>17<ths>(70.8)<Tc>
<Tr><ems>Asian American (%)<Tc>0<Tc>4<ths>(16.7)<Tc>
<Tr><ems>Hispanic American (%)<Tc>0<Tc>1<ths>(4.2)<Tc>
<Tr><ems>Other (%)<Tc>9<ths>(39.1)<Tc>0<Tc>
<Tr>Age, yr (SD)<Tc>46.05<ths>(6.13)<Tc>30.35<ths>(10.85)<Tc><mdit>t<m
+ed> <26> 5.94, <mdit>P<med> <178> 0.001
<Tr>Education, yr (SD)<Tc>11.37<ths>(2.31)<Tc>15.85<ths>(1.75)<Tc><mdi
+t>t<med> <26> 7.41, <mdit>P<med> <178> 0.001
<Tr>Pain Threshold, <28>C (SD)<Tc>48.75<ths>(2.44)<Tc>47.33<ths>(3.24)
+<Tc>U* <26> 158.0, <mdit>P<med> <26> 0.012
    <Tr;;4><ems>Males (SD) <26> 47.77 (3.35)&dagger;
<Tr;;4><ems>Females (SD) <26> 48.26 (2.36)&dagger;
<Tr;;4><ems>U&Dagger; <26> 244, <mdit>P<med> <26> 0.582<endtab>
[download]

I admit that I'm rusty on my HTML code, but I'm wondering if this is correct HTML formatting. If it's not, then the HTML parsers might not be able to parse this data correctly.

The reason that I'm questioning the formatting is:

• I don't see the table HTML tags. (I would have suggested keying in on the table tags, but I don't see them in the sample data that you provided.)
• I see the open TR tags, but not the corresponding close TR tags.
• I see some tags that I don't recognize as being HTML (Tc, ems, ths, mdit, ...).

Hi tej,

As marto said it is always good to use parsers to have neat solution. Anyhow you have not given your exact output, so below code may satisfy your requirement.

$str = '<Tr><Tc>PA Group (N <26> 23)<Tc>COM Group (N <26> 24)<Tc>
<Tr>Gender<Tc><Tc><Tc><124><sup>2<reset> test <26> 0.216, <mdit>df<med
+> <26> 1, <mdit>P<med> <26> 0.642
<Tr><ems>Male (%)<Tc>14<ths>(60.9)<Tc>13<ths>(54.2)<Tc>
<Tr><ems>Female (%)<Tc>9<ths>(39.1)<Tc>11<ths>(45.8)<Tc>
<Tr>Ethnicity<Tc><Tc><Tc><124><sup>2<reset> test <26> 24.99, <mdit>df<
+med> <26> 4, <mdit>P<med> <178> 0.001
<Tr><ems>African American (%)<Tc>5<ths>(21.7)<Tc>2<ths>(8.3)<Tc>
<Tr><ems>European American (%)<Tc>5<ths>(21.7)<Tc>17<ths>(70.8)<Tc>
<Tr><ems>Asian American (%)<Tc>0<Tc>4<ths>(16.7)<Tc>
<Tr><ems>Hispanic American (%)<Tc>0<Tc>1<ths>(4.2)<Tc>
<Tr><ems>Other (%)<Tc>9<ths>(39.1)<Tc>0<Tc>
<Tr>Age, yr (SD)<Tc>46.05<ths>(6.13)<Tc>30.35<ths>(10.85)<Tc><mdit>t<m
+ed> <26> 5.94, <mdit>P<med> <178> 0.001
<Tr>Education, yr (SD)<Tc>11.37<ths>(2.31)<Tc>15.85<ths>(1.75)<Tc><mdi
+t>t<med> <26> 7.41, <mdit>P<med> <178> 0.001
<Tr>Pain Threshold, <28>C (SD)<Tc>48.75<ths>(2.44)<Tc>47.33<ths>(3.24)
+<Tc>U* <26> 158.0, <mdit>P<med> <26> 0.012
<Tr;;4><ems>Males (SD) <26> 47.77 (3.35)&dagger;
<Tr;;4><ems>Females (SD) <26> 48.26 (2.36)&dagger;
<Tr;;4><ems>U&Dagger; <26> 244, <mdit>P<med> <26> 0.582<endtab>';

$str = qr{$str};

while ($str =~ m|((<Tr(?:\;)*(?:\d)*>)([^\n]*)<Tc>)|g){

push (@cells, $1)

}

print @cells;
[download]

Though table code looks like HTML code..The input file is neither completely HTML nor XML, which parser should i use in that case?