Regarding your update, where you show a modified version of the code I suggested, I should point out a minor (harmless) misconception in your final "for" loop to print the results. Here's your version of the for loop:

for (sort keys %data) {
    my @content = "$data{$_},$_";
    if (grep(/.*,.*,.*,.*$/, @content)){
        @column = grep(/.*,.*,.*,.*$/, @content)
    };
    #@column = grep(/.*,.*,.*,.*$/, @content);
    print $fh_out "@column\n"; 
}
[download]

The second line assigns a single string to an array (@content). This is bad form, but perl will "do the right thing" and create the array with a single element, which is the string you supplied: "$data{$_},$_" .

Next, the "if" condition returns true if the single array element happens to match your regex, where you appear to be testing whether a string contains at least three commas. If it matches, you use grep on the single element in @content to store the string in a new array "@column". (Looks like you have removed "use strict;" because @column appears to be working as an undeclared global -- bad idea.) Anyway, if the match fails, @column remains undefined. UPDATE: rather, @column remains unchanged -- it still holds whatever may have been assigned to it previously, if anything. That could cause a problem in your output.

Regardless of what happens with that if condition, you print @column followed by a line-feed (even if it's undefined --update: or contains a string from a previous iteration).

All of that would be better stated as follows:

for ( sort keys %data ) {
    print "$data{$_},$_\n" if ( $data{$_} =~ /,.*?,/ );
}
[download]

(that is, if the original value of "$data{$_}" contains two commas, add ",$_\n" at the end and print it; otherwise skip it)

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.