Split a string on unquoted separators

parse_line()

Using parse_line() of Text::ParseWords (opens new window):

use 5.010;
use Text::ParseWords;

my $line = q{"a quoted, comma", word1, word2};
my @parsed = parse_line(',', 1, $line);
say for @parsed;

Output:

"a quoted, comma"
 word1
 word2

Text::CSV or Text::CSV_XS

use Text::CSV; # Can use Text::CSV which will switch to _XS if installed
$sep_char = ",";
my $csv = Text::CSV->new({sep_char => $sep_char});
my $line = q{"a quoted, comma", word1, word2};
$csv->parse($line);
my @fields = $csv->fields();
print join("\n", @fields)."\n";

Output:

a quoted, comma
 word1
 word2

NOTES

By default, Text::CSV does not strip whitespace around separator character, the way `Text::ParseWords` does. However, adding `allow_whitespace=>1` to constructor attributes achieves that effect.

my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new({sep_char => $sep_char, allow_whitespace=>1});  

Output:

a quoted, comma
word1
word2

The library supports escaping special characters (quotes, separators)

The library supports configurable separator character, quote character, and escape character

Documentatoin: http://search.cpan.org/perldoc/Text::CSV (opens new window)