c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "use Data::Dumper; ;; $_ = '-1.23,4...5,6,foo,bar,baz,boff'; ;; my %hash; ;; if (/^\s*(-\d+\.*\d*),(\d+\.*\d*),(\d+\.*\d*),(\S+),(\S+),(\S+),(\S+)$/) { my $data1 = $1; my $data2 = $2; my $data3 = $3; my $data4 = $4; my $data5 = $5; my $data6 = $6; ;; $hash{data2}{data1}{data3} = $data3; $hash{data2}{data1}{data4} = $data4; $hash{data2}{data1}{data5} = $data5; $hash{data2}{data1}{data6} = $data6; } ;; print Dumper \%hash; " $VAR1 = { 'data2' => { 'data1' => { 'data6' => 'baz', 'data4' => 'foo', 'data3' => '6', 'data5' => 'bar' } } };