use Data::Dump qw(pp); my @array = qw<1000 1000 1000 1010 1010 1010 1020 1022 1023>; my %out; while (my ($pos, $val) = each @array) { $out{$val.':'.$pos} = { One => 1, Two => 1 }; } pp \%out; __END__ { "1000:0" => { One => 1, Two => 1 }, "1000:1" => { One => 1, Two => 1 }, "1000:2" => { One => 1, Two => 1 }, "1010:3" => { One => 1, Two => 1 }, "1010:4" => { One => 1, Two => 1 }, "1010:5" => { One => 1, Two => 1 }, "1020:6" => { One => 1, Two => 1 }, "1022:7" => { One => 1, Two => 1 }, "1023:8" => { One => 1, Two => 1 }, }