use strict; use warnings; print_ranges(make_ranges(make_sets())); exit 0; sub make_sets { my @lists = @_; my %set_by; # Hash of sets of integers by labels for my $list (@lists) { while ($list =~ m/(\w+)\s*:\s*(\d+)(?:\s*-\s*(\d+))?/ag) { my $label = $1; my $start = $2; my $end = $+; for my $integer ($start .. $end) { $set_by{$label}{$integer} = 1; } } } return \%set_by; } sub make_ranges { my $set_by = shift; my %ranges_by; # Hash of arrays of integer ranges by labels for my $label (keys %$set_by) { my $index = 0; for my $integer (sort { $a <=> $b } keys %{ $set_by->{$label} }) { if (not exists $set_by->{$label}{$integer - 1}) { $ranges_by{$label}[$index]{START} = $integer; } if (not exists $set_by->{$label}{$integer + 1}) { $ranges_by{$label}[$index++]{END} = $integer; } } } return \%ranges_by; } sub print_ranges { my $ranges_by = shift; my @ranges; for my $label (sort keys %{ $ranges_by }) { for my $range (@{ $ranges_by->{$label} }) { my $start = $range->{START}; my $end = $range->{END}; push @ranges, $start == $end ? "$label:$start" : "$label:$start-$end"; } } print join(' ', @ranges) . "\n"; } __DATA__ a:10-34 b:9-12 c:12-24 e: 1-9 a:1-8 a: 19-24 b:2-6 a:7-11 d:9-23 e: 12-23 a:35 e : 20 - 28 foo:42