#!/usr/bin/perl my $i=0; #line number my $j=0; #field number my @array; while () { chomp; my @colon = split(":"); $j=0; $array[$i][$j] = $colon[0]; my @commas = split(",", $colon[1]); foreach my $field (@commas) { $j++; $array[$i][$j]=$field; } $i++; } ## Just for printing my $a=0; my $b=0; foreach my $fields (@array) { $b=0; foreach my $field (@$fields) { print "FIELD ($a,$b) = " . $field . "\n"; $b++; } $a++; } ## End printing section __DATA__ COLUMN_A: "Y","N" COLUMN_B: COLUMN_C: "something", "something else", "and more"