my @fields = qw(a b c); my @input = qw( 5.5 3.2 15.0 -22 .02 .15); my %hash; for (my $i=0; $i<=2; $i++) { for (my $j=1; $j<=2; $j++) { $hash{$fields[$i]}{$j} = $input[((2*$i)+$j)-1]; } } for (my $i=0; $i<=2; $i++) { for (my $j=1; $j<=2; $j++) { print $fields[$i] . "{" . $j . "} -> " . $hash{$fields[$i]}{$j}, "\n +"; } } printf "%.1f\t%.1f\t%.1f\n", $hash{a}{1}, $hash{b}{1}, $hash{c}{1};