From: PerlFAQ Server on
This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq5.pod, which
comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
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perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org .

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5.30: How can I read in a file by paragraphs?

Use the $/ variable (see perlvar for details). You can either set it to
"" to eliminate empty paragraphs ("abc\n\n\n\ndef", for instance, gets
treated as two paragraphs and not three), or "\n\n" to accept empty
paragraphs.

Note that a blank line must have no blanks in it. Thus
"fred\n \nstuff\n\n" is one paragraph, but "fred\n\nstuff\n\n" is two.



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