#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use Data::Dumper; my %arg = map{my($key,$val)=split/=/;$key=>$val}@ARGV; print Dumper(\%arg); #### $VAR1 = { 'lexwhere' => '\'in(\'DIS\', \'DIM\', \'DIR\')\'', 'title' => '\'this is a title\'', 'vchtyp' => 'I', 'jrnltyp' => 'D' };