A hash is the right answer, but I believe that he is looking for a hash of hashes....
#!/usr/bin/perl
open(IN,"/some/file") || die "Cant open file\nReason: $!\n";
while (<IN>) {
chomp($line = $_);
($first,$second) = (split(/:/, $line))[1,2];
$fruit{$first}{count}++;
$fruit{$first}{$second}++;
}
close(IN);
foreach $k (sort(keys(%fruit))) {
print "$k $fruit{$k}{count}\n";
}
The reason I used count as well, is so A) I dont have to loop to figure out what my total count for $first is, and B) I also can test for $fruit{$k}{blah} and determine if there were duplicates. You could add the test within the while loop.. I.e test for $fruit{$first}{$second} and if it exists warn or something, else increment it :)... Have fun
/*
* And the Creator, against his better judgement, wrote man.c
*/