#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use warnings; use Test::More qw(no_plan); use Data::Dumper; my $expected = { 'SET1' => [ [ '0','100','BOOK'], [ '1','150','PENCIL'], ], 'SET2' => [ [ '2','111','ERASER'], [ '2','200','PEN'], [ '0','220','BLACKBOARD'], [ '1','300','CHALK'], ] }; my $key; my %hoa; my @arr; while ( ) { chomp; next if (/^\s+/); if ( /^SET/ ) { my @KEY = split (/[\s:]/,$_); $key = $KEY[2]; } elsif (/^\d/) { my @INST = split(/,/,$_); push @arr, [@INST]; } $hoa{$key} = [ @arr]; } Test::More::is_deeply (\%hoa, $expected); print '%hoa' . "\n" . Dumper(\%hoa); __DATA__ SET: SET1 0,100,BOOK 1,150,PENCIL ==== SET: SET2 2,111,ERASER 2,200,PEN 0,220,BLACKBOARD 1,300,CHALK ====