#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
# small snippet to explore dealing with complex data structures and duplicates/uniques and consolidation
my %pets;
my @info;
#() below only signify that multiple elements possible in 3rd and 4th elements of $info[i]
my $a ='Mary,Owens,"cat","white"';
my $b ='Bill,Thompson,"cat,dog","white,black"';
my $c ='Bill,Thompson,"hamster,cat","black,brown"';
my $d ='Bill,Smith,"goldfish,dog,turtle","yellow,spotted,green"';

push @info,$a,$b,$c,$d;

#how to organize this data and loop thru to populate %pets from @info and extract output as below  This is the part that I struggle with

exit;

##</code><code>##

# Desired output from printing %pets: single line with unique elements for #the species and color arrays and fields separated by ":"

#"Mary":"Owens":"cat":"white"
#"Bill":"Thompson":"cat","dog","hamster":"white","black","brown"
#"Bill":"Smith":"goldfish","dog","turtle":"yellow","spotted","green"