my $animals = "/home/usr/workspace/list"; my %animals_hash; sub main { my @newlines; unless(open(INPUT, $animals)) { die "\nCannot open $animals\n"; } while(my $line = ) { chomp $line; if ($line =~ /DUCK/) { print "Send to Building XX"; exit; } else { my ($sums, $animal) = split /\s+/, $line; %animals_hash = ( $animal => $sums, ); } } my @keylist = keys %animals_hash; my $max_key = pop @keylist; foreach (@keylist) { $max_key = $_ if $animals_hash{$_} > $animals_hash{$max_key}; } print $max_key. " :: " . $animals_hash{$max_key} . "\n"; print Dumper(%animals_hash); close INPUT; } main();