sh - white Space in shell array -

i have issue when creating array from line separate "|_|", think whitespace creating problem here line contains fields containing white space

here in 1 line -

if<4>|_|10.127.101.49|_|10.127.101.49_if<4>|_|1393809196|_|if<4>|_|if: 4 "100 mbps" "fa0/4 ergun-server4"|_|on|_|ietf_if|_|zerosreported|_|false|_|location|_|""|_|countersupport|_|32:32|_|ap_ifdescr|_|"fastethernet0/4"|_|ap_ifstatus|_|up:up|_|errorsreported|_|true|_|trafficdirection|_|both|_|discardsreported|_|true|_|ap_ifalias|_|"ergun-server4"|_|ifconnectorpresent|_|true|_|multicastsupport|_|nucast|_|sysname|_|"utr-sw-06"|_|useshighspeed|_|false|_|displayspeed|_|"100 mbps"|_|if|_|4|_|ap_iftype|_|ethernetcsmacd|_|ap_ifspeed|_|100000000|_| 

here have tried

#!/bin/sh  # read subelement file while read line                 # parse subelement record          fields=( ${line//\|_\|/ } )             # fixed fields     instance=${fields[0]}     eltname=${fields[1]}     name=${fields[2]}     date=${fields[3]}     instance=${fields[4]}     label=${fields[5]}     state=${fields[6]}     family=${fields[7]}     eltdbindex=${fields[8]}     dbindex=${fields[18]}     missing=${fields[20]}    done < /home/pvuser/gt/temp/subelement.dat 

here perl 1 liner parses data:

cat subelement.dat |  | perl -ne 'chomp;s/\cm//g;@f =split /\|_\|/, $_; $i=0;foreach (@f ) { print "  ",++$i,"\t:=$_=:\n"};' 

perl script might help:

# open file open $input, "<", "subelement.dat" or die "unable open : $!";  # while loop read line of text @ time while(<$input>) {     chomp;   # remove end of line character     s/\cm//g;  # remove spurious control-m characters     next if not length($_);   # skip if line empty      # parse whole line     @fields = split /\|_\|/, $_;      # parse line , place values in variables     my( $instance, $eltname, $name, $date,         $instance, $label, $state, $family,         $eltdbindex, $dbindex, $missing )            = (split /\|_\|/, $_)[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 18, 20];      print "instance '$instance'\n";     print "instance '$fields[0]'\n";     print "\n";      print "eltname  '$eltname'\n";     print "eltname  '$fields[1]'\n";     print "\n";      print "name     '$name'\n";     print "name     '$fields[2]'\n";     print "\n";      print "date     '$date'\n";     print "instance '$instance'\n";     print "label    '$label'\n";     print "state    '$state'\n";     print "family   '$family'\n";     print "eltdbindex '$eltdbindex'\n";      print "dbindex    '$dbindex'\n";     print "dbindex    '$fields[18]'\n";     print "\n";      print "missing    '$missing'\n"; }