#!perl -w

use strict;

my %person = map {
    m!^(.*)$!;
    defined($1) and length($1) ? ($1 => 1) : ()
} <DATA>;

__DATA__
Ruth
Samuel
Paul
John
Silas

##</code><code>##

#!perl -w

use strict;

my %person;

while ( chomp($_ = <DATA>) ) {
    $person{$_} = 1;
}

__DATA__
Ruth
Samuel
Paul
John
Silas