#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; # https://perlmonks.org/?node_id=11107038 use warnings; my @lines = ; @lines = map /[^=:\s]*,[^=:\s]*/ ? map "$`$_$'", split /,/, $& : $_, @lines while "@lines" =~ /,/; my %hash = split ' ', "@lines"; $_ = { split /[=|]/ } for values %hash; use Data::Dump 'dd'; dd \%hash; __DATA__ Prefix1=A,B:c,d value1=5 Prefix2=A:b,c:1,2 value2=6 Prefix4=A:*:1,2 value4a=10|value4b=20 Prefix5,Prefix6=A:*:1,7 value5=10 #### { "Prefix1=A:c" => { value1 => 5 }, "Prefix1=A:d" => { value1 => 5 }, "Prefix1=B:c" => { value1 => 5 }, "Prefix1=B:d" => { value1 => 5 }, "Prefix2=A:b:1" => { value2 => 6 }, "Prefix2=A:b:2" => { value2 => 6 }, "Prefix2=A:c:1" => { value2 => 6 }, "Prefix2=A:c:2" => { value2 => 6 }, "Prefix4=A:*:1" => { value4a => 10, value4b => 20 }, "Prefix4=A:*:2" => { value4a => 10, value4b => 20 }, "Prefix5=A:*:1" => { value5 => 10 }, "Prefix5=A:*:7" => { value5 => 10 }, "Prefix6=A:*:1" => { value5 => 10 }, "Prefix6=A:*:7" => { value5 => 10 }, }