#!/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