while () { # loop through all lines of shortnames my ($longname,$shortname) = (split /:/)[7,0]; # seperate by those ugly colen $finishedusers{$longname} = $shortname; chomp %finishedusers; } while (($templong,$tempshort) = each(%finishedusers)) { print "long: $templong \n short: $tempshort \n\n }