use 5.14.2; use warnings; use Text::CSV_XS "csv"; use Data::Peek; my $data = csv (in => *DATA); my @hdr = @{shift @$data}; my $n = $#hdr; my @students = map { my %h; @h{@hdr} = splice @$_, 0 , $n; $h{hobbies} = [ @$_ ]; \%h, } @$data; DDumper \@students; __END__ name,home_town,age,hobbies Angie Green,Denver,12,Horses,Painting,Karaoke,Ham Radio Jamie Brown,London,34 Mark White,Madrid,56,Cooking,Perl,Running Mary Black,Dublin,30,Baking,Singing,Swimming,Programming Perl