my $FILE = "joe.txt"; open FH, $FILE or die "Can't open $FILE: $!"; my %hash; while () { chomp; my($key, $val) = split /=>/; $hash{$key} = $val; } close FH or die "Can't close $FILE: $!"; $myhash{$timestamp}=$newLine; open FH, ">" . $FILE or die "Can't open $FILE: $!"; print FH join("\n", map $_ . "=>" . $hash{$_}, keys %hash), "\n"; close FH or die "Can't close $FILE: $!";