c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le "my $major_div = '!!'; my $user_div = '0'; my $var_div = ','; my $full_string = join $major_div, 'abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop0key1=data1,key2=data20key1=data3,key2=data4', 'qwer-asdf-zxcv-tyui0key1=data30key3=data6', 'trew-hgfd-ytre-bvcx0key1=data7,key2=data80key1=data9,key2=data10', 'erty-dfgh-cvbn-hjkl0key2=data50key3=data6', ; print qq{full_string: <<$full_string>> \n}; ;; my $aref = fieldParse($full_string, $major_div, $user_div, $var_div); dd $aref; ;; sub fieldParse { my $source = shift; return $source unless @_; ;; my $delim = shift; return [ map fieldParse($_, @_), split $delim, $source ]; } " full_string: <> [ [ ["abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop"], ["key1=data1", "key2=data2"], ["key1=data3", "key2=data4"], ], [["qwer-asdf-zxcv-tyui"], ["key1=data3"], ["key3=data6"]], [ ["trew-hgfd-ytre-bvcx"], ["key1=data7", "key2=data8"], ["key1=data9", "key2=data1"], ], [["erty-dfgh-cvbn-hjkl"], ["key2=data5"], ["key3=data6"]], ]