#!/usr/bin/perl -w use Data::Dumper; while() { chomp; next unless $_; if($_ =~ /^\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+/) { push @{$CoreRegR{$key}},$_; # first time, for new server, auto-vivifies # $CoreRegR{$key} as arrayref. # first and all other times, # pushes the ip range onto the anon array that # $CoreRegR{$key} refers to. } else { $key = $_; } } print Dumper(\%CoreRegR); __DATA__ Server1 Name 192.168.100.1/27 192.168.101.2/32 Server2 Name Server3 Name 192.168.102.3/31 192.168.103.4/30 192.168.104.5/28 Server4 Name 10.100.2.1/31 10.101.2.2/32 10.102.2.3/28 Server5 Name 10.103.2.4/29 10.104.2.5/27 #### $VAR1 = { 'Server3 Name' => [ '192.168.102.3/31', '192.168.103.4/30', '192.168.104.5/28' ], 'Server4 Name' => [ '10.100.2.1/31', '10.101.2.2/32', '10.102.2.3/28' ], 'Server5 Name' => [ '10.103.2.4/29', '10.104.2.5/27' ], 'Server1 Name' => [ '192.168.100.1/27', '192.168.101.2/32' ], 'Server2 Name' => [] };