use strict; use Data::Dumper; while () { chomp; my @rec; # was - foreach (split /"(.*,.*)"|,/) ... foreach (split /"((?:\\"|.)*?)"|,/) { push @rec, $_ if $_ } print Dumper(\@rec); } __DATA__ 1,"Hello, world",This is good,2 121212,"Simpson, Bart",Springfield,"Roger" 121212,"2\" tape, \"white",springfield,"Roger" 121212,"Simpson \", Bart",Springfield,"Roger"