#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my %hash = ( 'common line' => ['file1', 'file2',], 'common line different' => ['file1', 'file2', 'file3',] ); print Dumper \%hash; __END__ $ perl test.pl $VAR1 = { 'common line' => [ 'file1', 'file2' ], 'common line different' => [ 'file1', 'file2', 'file3' ] };