my $filename = '/path/to/file.csv'; open (my $fh, '>', $filename) or die "Could not open $filename, $!"; my @headers = qw( DET IN JJ NN VBD ); print $fh join(',',@headers) . "\n"; # then, for each of your phrases print $fh join(',', map($tags{$_} || 0, @headers) ) . "\n"; close $fh;