# warning windows double quotes! perl -MData::Dump -F"\s*\|\s*|\s" -lane "next if $.==1;$r{$F[0]}={@F[1..$#F]};END{dd %r}" inputtable.txt ( "IBM", { February => 1, July => 4, March => 5 }, "Oracle", { April => 6, January => 3, March => 4, May => 5 }, "RedHat", { August => 1, June => 3, March => 2 }, )